Lie To Me
by TheWanderingMiko
Summary: When the doctor makes a bet with Zoro to prove that Sanji is making mental progress, can Zoro somehow manage to keep his personal life and professional life separate? Written with LadyStarwing from Deviant Art.
1. Sanji

There are some things that we can't forget, no matter how hard we try, they are ingrained into us like burns on a charred piece of wood. Like pieces of glass burrowed into our skin, these memories twist and stab into us, causing pain and end up festering like an infected wound; oozing guilt and sorrow like puss from that wound.

Needless to say that these wounds have a profound effect on us, and though some might think that these wounds show weakness, they just show how adaptable the human mind is.

He sat in the back of the cell, staring blankly at the door that had been closed for so long. His straight jacket at first had been too tight but he had gotten used to it, as well as the mask over his face. They wouldn't take it off no matter how much he told them that he wasn't a threat.

No one believes you when you're crazy…

He thought bitterly, his eyes focusing as movement through the window caught his attention and a voice rang through as the button was pushed to allow it.

"Good morning Sanji", the old crone said lightly, saying something else but as he had lifted his finger from the button the blond couldn't hear it. No doubt he was telling the small group of students that he always took on his morning troupes about his 'star patient' More than once Sanji had bitten, stabbed, kicked or otherwise attacked the old man; the doc didn't like it, but it gave him something to talk about around the water cooler no doubt.

The blond was starting to tune out when suddenly another pair of eyes appeared in the small window, a new pair that he'd never seen before; they were black as the midnight sky. The person said something to the doctor before the man rejected and the owner of the new eyes did it anyway. Obviously the button on the wall was pushed again because a lightly deep new voice rang through to the patient.

"So you're name is Sanji right?", they asked, "You don't look all that dangerous…", Sanji smirked from behind his mask, leering dangerously at the eyes through the small window.

"Why don't you come in here, and I'll show you", the new person opened his mouth to say something but was immediately pushed aside by the doctor who then proceeded to urge the group away.

Damn, coulda' been fun…

Zoro stood back and watched this so-called professional in front of him. To be honest, he didn't seem the right person for the job. He was too patronizing of the patients. Zoro had been studying psychology for as long as he could remember and he should have known by now what went on - on a general note - in the human brain, how thoughts were considered.

Yes, it was true, all people were different. But, really, in the end, people reacted the same ways to any difficult situation. They freak out and their mind tells them to do one thing when they want to do something different.

The person in the cell before him had apparently done something to make these people think he was crazy. The doctor believed that these people were some sort of children that he could play around with. But Zoro believed that they needed help and that he could truly give it to them.

He had come to the asylum to study what went on. To see how these people acted. Now, though, he was intrigued by the way the patients acted, especially this Sanji character. He wanted to find out more. He didn't really believe in people going ''insane''. It didn't seem right to him.

Zoro listened to the doctor drone on about how well the patients were treated in the asylum. He wanted to speak to this Sanji himself, to see what was really going on in his head.

"As I was saying", the old doctor's voice broke the novice out of his thoughts, he was the kind of man that made himself overly important, "you will all be allowed to choose a patient to oversee the care of, you will serve as medicator and therapist to said patient as I oversee your progress; my overseeing such is mainly for your safety." A hushed whisper of excitement ran through the crowd of interns around Zoro.

"Roronoa Zoro?", the doctor said lightly, addressing his obviously favourite pupil, "Could I direct your attention to a rather interesting case?", he asked, directing the young man towards room 108, the room just before Sanji's 109. "Her name is Robin, she is a paranoid schizophrenic who apparently believes her arms are edible." Inside the room was a dark haired woman in a straight jacket, she wore no mask like Sanji did, though one might have thought she would due to the visible bite marks on her body that led up under the jacket as well as the ones that were on the jacket itself. She leered at him, calling at him with a welcoming coo and a smile.

"She has her good days, as well as her bad days; this is because her medications are in a state of constant fluctuation until we find the right remedy for her various mental illnesses. On her good days she can be as sweet as a kitten and on her bad days she can be vicious, though nothing as bad as patient 109."

Zoro followed the doctor absentmindedly. He had taken up quite an interest in patient 109 - Sanji, as this doctor called him.

Sanji, to him at least, seemed like someone who shouldn't really be there. To Zoro, really, he was just a guy that liked to play pranks. He had known many people like that. But there was almost something intriguing there. Something more to look at. There was obviously something going on in this patients mind or actions that made someone think that he needed serious help. Maybe a prank gone too wild?

Zoro tried to pay more attention to the doctor instead of having those straying thoughts entering his mind. When he heard his voice he looked up, surprised. He didn't like the question that followed.

Zoro had never been one to be afraid to raise his hand in class, to ask a random question that came to his head. Hence him not being afraid now to suggest something. "Don't mean to butt in or anything. But I'd really like to work with patient 109. He seems kind of interesting to me."

That sounded bad when he thought about it properly. Hopefully the doctor had taken it the right way.

A sour look suddenly came over the old doctor, as though he had eaten something particularly foul and was now noticing the taste in his mouth. He stared at the intern for a long moment, then he gave a nervous laugh and pulled on his collar before rubbing his hands together.

"Young man, patient 109 is a severe case of violent schizophrenia with social detachment and sadistic tendencies, he likes to be violent and play mind games with those around him for his own amusement. Surely you cant handle someone of his level just yet, why not take patient 108?" He motioned towards the door he was standing in front of in hopes that the novice would accept the offer.

Zoro looked at the doctor with disdain. He hated when people under-minded him, made him feel like he couldn't, or didn't have the potential to, do something. He straightened his shoulders, to show the doctor that he wasn't afraid.

To be honest, patient 108 looked more scary to him than patient 109. He didn't want to say this out loud, but he sure did think of it that way. Zoro stepped forward, defying the doctor who thought he knew everything. "I know he's a bit dysfunctional and, you know, violent but I've prepared for these kind of people my whole college life. And, really, if I hadn't asked, who would have looked after this dude?"

He chuckled to himself as he heard how his reply came out. Dude. What a perfect word to use when talking to your soon-to-be boss.

The doctor looked Zoro up and down, tapping his chin lightly for a moment before a sly smile crossed his lips.

"I will make you a wager if you want this patient so badly", he said lightly, "a tad unprofessional of me but I assume we're not being professional at the moment anyway" The old doctor took a step towards the man, it was obvious that he didn't like this bold new pupil, "I will let you have this patient, you may oversee him completely for the entire internship, periodically-as all the rest of the students will-you will have to present your patient to me and show that he is making mental progress. At the end of the internship, that is six months from now, you will have to prove to me that patient 109 has made considerable mental progress and that he is well on his way to be released into society. If you succeed, you will have a considerable achievement under your belt as well as full funding by my entire department to fund whatever research or future plans you have in this field. But if you fail, you will not be accepted for the second internship which is-as I am sure you know-a requirement to apply at this hospital and you will have to intern elsewhere."

The old man gave a crooked grin and offered up his bony hand, he was sure that Zoro wouldn't accept, if he failed then he would have a hard time finding work as this hospital had a influential death grip on the medical community.

Zoro stood there listening to the doctor speak of this so-called wager. It seemed fair to him. He didn't have to think much about it before saying: "I accept." He smiled back at the old man, trying to mentally prepare himself for this patient.

Yes, he seemed interesting, like there was something more than a person saw on the outside but that didn't mean he was maybe going into deep with this. Maybe he was getting himself into something too challenging for him.

Zoro smiled happily, glad that he had just made a big accomplishment. He had finally gotten where he wanted to after his many years of studying. Yeah, well, he was just an intern. But that was only for now. He believed that. He had always been one for self-confidence, believing in himself when no-one else did.

He was ready, though. He followed the doctor, just eagerly waiting for his instructions for his new patient.

The old man ran through the instructions quickly, it was pretty standard stuff; keep logs of interactions between each intern and their chosen patient; submit annual reports; adjust medication and report injuries, medicinal shifts, attacks and other upsets. Once he was done talking, he dismissed them, allowing the interns to choose their patients from case file copies that he had handed out. As he handed out the files, he skipped over Zoro.

"As you have already chosen your patient", the doctor said lightly as he reached the green haired man, "you may interact with him if you so choose."

Once the group had been lead away from his room, Sanji laid on his back and grinned, the owner of those new eyes, he'd certainly been interesting. He wished that he'd been able to get closer to him, but that was unlikely to happen. Sanji was the head doctor's favorite patient, he was dangerous and mean. That certainly gave him something to talk about, as well as to awe those under his instruction. There was little hope that he would give up such a patient to a novice.

Rolling onto his back he shifted so his head was off the bed then flipped his body so that he landed on his knees. There had been many times that he'd tried to do that and simply had landed on his neck, once he'd nearly broken it, that was why he'd been put in the straight jacket; those idiots didn't know that you didn't need arms to hurt yourself.

Shifting onto his rear, he pushed himself between his bed and the wall, wedging his rather lean body into the small space, using the toilet as leverage to get him back there and moved the bed a little forward until his back hit the wall and he could lean back against it. There was a nail on the wall that he had worked hard with his buckles to get out of the wall far enough to do the job he wanted it to do. Very deliberately he hooked it under the top buckle and shifted so that the strap would be tugged free of the little rod that stopped it from moving and the strap could be tugged free as he moved his shoulders.

Once that buckle was done, he moved on to another, then another; it was a slow process, but it wasn't as though he had anything better to do. After an hour and a half, the jacket slipped from his shoulders and he tossed it onto the bed, straightening his shirt that was under it lightly. Then he pushed the bed back to it's original place and sat in his usual place in the small space between the bed and the toilet.

Zoro took in what the doctor was saying carefully and listened intently. He wanted to know exactly what to do and not make any mistakes. He didn't want to hurt his patient's progress in any way. That would hurt his position and actually hurt him. This was what he had been trained for.

He watched the doctor walk away, leaving him to do what he wanted with his patient. Zoro walked back through the halls of the building, looking around him to see things that he remembered on the tour. Reaching the room of patient 109, he stood there, preparing himself for the man's reaction. Was he going to be surprised, or happy or whatever?

He opened the door slowly, surprised at what he saw as he entered. The patient had successfully taken off the straight jacket that he surely had on when he had seen him before. This made Zoro even more keen on working with Sanji, more intrigued by what went on in the man's mind.

"I'm going to be working with you for the next six months. I'm telling you now, dude, I think this is gonna be pretty fun," he said to the patient in front of him. He could already see it.

Sanji didn't jump like most patients would when a voice broke his almost silent world around him; slowly raising his head, he smirked from behind his mask, looking at the handsome young man standing before him.

"Well you're a sight, I was almost expecting that old codger to come yell at me for talking to you", he said lightly, leaning his head back against the wall and closing his eyes. "So he really let you have me, huh? I'm sure you've heard his stories, what makes you think I wont attack you just like I attack him?" He dropped his head, eyes opening to scan the green haired man before him, "Because you have a pretty face?", he laughed and stood, he was about the same height as the intern if not ever so slightly taller. Pacing across the room, he came to circle the man, his mouth dipping to bite his earlobe gently through the mask, his voice but a sadistic whisper in his ear, "that just makes me want to break you~... Like a pretty porcelain doll dropped to the floor..."

Sanji grinned, he liked the dominant aura coming from this man, it was obvious that he wasn't the kind of man to back down and that was probably what was drawing him to this intern like a moth to the flame. But he had to be careful, just like pretty moth wings were burnt by the very flames that haunted and attracted them so, this man could become a problem if he wasn't precise in his actions. But even with this warning skittering to the back of his mind, part of him dared that danger, he wanted to see if this man could overcome him.

Zoro stood up strong as the patient muttered threats in his ear. This would normally scare anyone else but he was trained to withstand and craziness as they called it back at school. In his mind he was freaking out, but his physical stature had to always be calm when with a psych patient so that they wouldn't feel uncomfortable or dominating towards him. It seemed to be working for now. Even though he was going mental in his brain himself at that moment, he was keeping it cool on the outside.

It was going to be a long six months. He gulped and straightened his shoulders a little. "So, tell me about yourself," he said, putting on a professional smile.

Sanji snaked away from the intern, grinning at him as he pressed his back against the wall and slid down; sitting back between the bed and the toilet.

"What is there to tell~?", he asked, "Have you not ready my file? That old crone no doubt has told you how he fought me off at the last moment as though he were a hero", the patient's voice was condescendingly pleasant, it was obvious that he disliked the head doctor but he was speaking as though he were being nice. "Why not believe him? Take his word for it and stick a needle in my arm?", an almost evil grin came on the blond's face, "Or are you the one person in this institution that is naive enough to ask the clinically insane what's wrong with them?"

Laying his head against the cool surface of the toilet, the blond watched this new face silently for a long moment; it occurred to him that though he'd told them many times that he wasn't a threat, they'd made him one because they hadn't listened to him. Was this man to be the only one to listen? If he was, Sanji had to commend him for his stupidity.

"Do you have a smoke?", he asked curiously.

Zoro blinked. His feelings of being afraid had completely vanished from his mind. Yes, there was no way out of the situation at the moment but that was alright now. He honestly didn't think that this patient thought he was a threat. In fact, he believed that. "Yeah, don't think so. Was just wondering if you wanted to tell me anything special. Apparently not. Okay. Well, the name's Zoro. Just got out of Med School about six months ago. Happy to meet you too."

Laughing at the man in front of him, Zoro slipped his hand in his pocket, reaching for the pack of cigarettes he always kept in his pocket, offering Sanji one innocently, not even thinking in any instance that he was doing something wrong. He believed that this patient wasn't really that bad. It was all about the talk for him. Been there done that, Zoro thought to himself.

He waited for this man to take the offer, waiting for him to finally see that he was really there to be his friend, to understand him.

Taking the cigarette from the package, Sanji looked at it briefly.

"Got a light?", he asked, slipping the cigarette into his mouth and sucking on it lightly; it was delicious, utterly and completely delicious, the old crone hadn't let him have one in six months and though he no longer needed to smoke thanks to that, he still liked to have one once in a while.

When the man offered him a lighter, he took it and lit the cigarette, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly as he laid his head back against the cool stone, looking down at the green haired man.

"The name's Sanji", he said lightly, "though I am sure you already knew that; now I ask you, why the hell would you want to work with nut jobs like me all the time?", he truly didn't understand why someone would want to, "the way I see it, you gotta be a little mentally insane to want to work with the mentally insane; you just have had the luck not to be caught yet" He took another deep breath of smoke, closing his eyes as the tip of the cancer stick smoldered a vibrant red which dimmed when he stopped breathing in. "Kinda like all the little kids that steal things and the men that steal and go to jail. The kids just have the luck not to get caught.", he mumbled as he let the smoke out and watched it curl to the ceiling, taking the cigarette between two fingers and flicking the ashes into the bowl of the toilet.

Zoro watched the man with the cigarette, as if it was a piece of heaven that he had just been handed. "Yeah, Sanji," he said, as if contemplating the name again. "Honestly, to tell the truth, I just wanted something to do. And out of all these crackers around here, you had the most interesting story. Thought I may as well jump on it when I had the chance to have some fun around here. Otherwise I'd be sitting around depressed all day."

He laughed at his own analization. Admitting it was a good thing, made him feel better about it. Really, though, he was trying not to make Sanji feel like he was just a charity case. What he really was though was an extreme experiment for him. To see if he could work with anyone in the future, as freaky and intimidating as him.

He slouched against the wall, getting out a cigarette for himself and lighting it up, sucking in the delicious addictiveness. He wanted to quit, but at times like this he always seemed to just give in. Why not join in with this guy while he had the chance.

In his mind, Zoro hoped that no-one outside would notice that they were smoking in there. He was pretty sure it wasn't tolerated there. But oh well, what'cha gonna do.

An almost sour laugh escaped Sanji with the smoke from his next drag after he'd listened to what the man said; taking one more drag he tossed the butt into the bowl of the small metal toilet where he'd been putting his ashes.

"I have no back story", he said lightly, "I am the only patient with no family, no friends, they found me on the street, the government keeps me in here because they can't put me in jail and it's safer to have me in here than to let me roam the streets" Getting up the blond paced to the door, kicked it shut and then headed to the bed. He stood there for a moment then picked up the straight jacket, looked at it for a moment and threw it to the far corner of the cell before laying down on the creaky old bed.

"Thanks for the smoke, he said lightly and before the intern could say anything, the doctor's voice interrupted them, calling for the intern to leave the cell.

Zoro looked at Sanji. He knew there was nothing wrong with him. He was probably just some guy with twisted thoughts. It seemed obvious enough with the no-family thing. That was license enough to make you want to do bad things.

He flipped his cigarette into the toilet as Sanji had done with his, not before taking one last, long drag. His time was obviously up. He couldn't wait to get to know this guy better. Already what he had told him, even if it was only a tiny bit of information, made him more interested in him and made him want to work with him more.

He could hardly contain his excitement as he thought about coming back tomorrow. Regaining his calmness he looked at Sanji. "No prob, man. See you tomorrow."

He tried to take his coolness out with him as he met up with the doctor outside.

Sanji rolled over when the other man had left the room and been ushered away by the head doctor; he watched the door for a long moment before finally turning his eyes to the ceiling, accepting the fact that no one would come to him anymore tonight.

"Those eyes", he mumbled softly to himself; those eyes would haunt him, they were handsome eyes, ones that he knew would be burned into his memory until the very day he died. They were eyes that he wanted to watch him as he did terrible things, sick things; just to have them on him made him want to shiver and shake. Closing his eyes he let out a soft moan as they appeared in his mind; he would have to forget them, though that might prove difficult if he had to see that man every day for the next six months.

He tried to shake them away, but they stayed, blurred for a moment then came back; he shook his head again, still they stayed. Getting up he paced around the room, the eyes following him all the while.

"Go away", he mumbled, pacing faster; when they didn't obey he spoke louder, "Go away!" Shaking his head again he backed against the door, the eyes were still there. "GO AWAY!", he screamed, holding his head and shaking it, hitting it against the door when they didn't obey. "GO AWAY! GO AWAY!"

Again and again he cracked his head against the hard surface of the door, the eyes blurred each time but still came back. Suddenly the door opened and he felt a needle in his arm for a split second before he succumbed to the sedation, the eyes slowly blurring and vanishing, leaving him to darkness.

**

The head doctor walked along ahead of his students when one of the nurses on duty yelled for him; turning around, he headed back towards room 109, inside the room, Sanji seemed upset, he was shaking his head and yelling, though he couldn't hear him, it was clear what he was saying, 'go away'. The fit continued for a moment before the patient screamed and the loud thunk of him hitting his head to the hard pane of the door sounded.

"Open it and get me a sedative!", he ordered to the nurse who dug in her pocket and handed off a syringe before clicking the button to unlock the door.

Sanji's voice was a chilling scream as the doctor entered the room, motioning for all of the interns to stay back, including Zoro.

"GO AWAY!", Sanji howled before the doctor stuck him and he fell into unconsciousness; when he was fully sedated, the doctor got up, leaving him on the floor and exited the room.

"Still think you can handle him?", he asked Zoro as the nurse closed the door; there was a second of silence, then the head doctor started to lead the gaggle of interns away.

Zoro ran along with the doctor as they went to check on his patient. Hearing the terrified shoutings coming from Sanji, he became frightened. Not because he was afraid he himself would get hurt but because he was afraid that Sanji might actually hurt himself. He was already banging his head on the door. It would only take a little more pain and he would pass out.

He felt himself sigh a breath of relief as they put a sedative into his arm. At least then he would be relaxed and not worrying anymore, whatever it was about. He looked at the doctor. "Still think you can handle him?" he said to him.

Zoro stuck out his chest, showing the old doctor that he believed in himself and was willing and determined about this patient. He was now even more interested. There was obviously something there, in his mind that made him go off. Or was it him that had tripped it off? No, that couldn't be. He had hardly even said anything to the poor guy. Zoro was bouncing off ideas in his brain, wondering what could be the solution to this word problem right here.

The sound of the buzzer that signaled the cell door opening woke Sanji the next morning, he felt groggy and sick as was usual after having to be put down with sedatives. Pushing himself up he backed into the wall, knowing what was coming; it was morning medication time. He watched as the door to the cell opened and two male nurses came in, one holding a small cup of pills and the other a zapping rod.

"We don't want any trouble Sanji", the one with the rod said lightly; the patient tucked his thumbs into the waistband of his pants.

"I'm not taking any pills", he said lightly; before he could say any more he felt his back be slammed against the cool stone; the guard with the rod had his arm pressed to Sanji's chest.

"You're going to take them without a fight", he said lightly; the blond arched an eyebrow at him curiously.

"Is that so?", the guard grinned at the question.

"Yeah that's so", he replied with a laugh; the patient joined in laughing for a second before he reared back and cracked his head against the other man's. The man retreated back before rushing at him, rod extended out to make contact. Sanji was too quick to be caught so easily though and ducked under the rod, wheeling around and pressing his foot to the man's throat, holding him tight to the wall before grabbing the rod out of the nurse's hand and aiming it at the one holding the pills.

"Get out", he snapped lowly, the nurse ran like a coward, pushing his way past Zoro on his way out; nearly running him over.

Zoro woke up to the sound of his cell phone buzzing. 'Come down quick. I told you he was trouble'. It was the doctor, of course. He sighed, not really thinking clearly having just woken up. He put on some pants, splashed his face with some cold water, grabbed a shirt and went to his car. Part of him, the part that was now awake,told him to rush, that the situation was probably serious.

Getting into the building he jogged lightly to Sanji's room, attempting not to knock anyone over in the process. Standing outside his door, he heard pounding and slamming sounds. He was about to knock on the door when it opened and he came out, practically pushing him over.

He stood there, stunned, for a second, then went after him. He didn't want Sanji to do anything stupid, which was most likely to happen if he went off by himself. "Sanji!" No answer. Zoro was getting closer and closer to him, trying to be careful as to leave at least ten or so feet between them. Yes, he was scared that Sanji would attack him too. But this was what he was hired for, wasn't it?

"Sanji!"

The patient craned his head back to look at the source of the voice, keeping himself on balance so that the nurse was pinned to the wall by his throat and very unable to move. When his eyes landed on the upside down figure of Zoro standing there he just grinned at him in a semi malicious way. He wanted him to watch, to see.

Standing fully straight again and pulled his foot back as though he were going to let the man go before spinning and kicking him across the face. The nurse fell, unconscious, hitting the toilet on his way down and bouncing before coming to rest limply on the floor.

"Told you I wasn't going to take any pills", he said with a grin before dropping the zapping rod that he hadn't used as anything more than a threat to the floor beside the unconscious man and leaning against the wall.

"Hello", he said with a pretty smile to the intern watching him.

Zoro tried to hide his shock but if someone had seen him they probably would have seen wide eyes and a mouth dropped open. To be honest, Zoro had to give Sanji props. Those were some awesome hits. He quickly remembered that he was supposed to not condone his actions, though.

He looked around him, searching for an answer, something he could say that would be actually doing his job. He fixed his expression fast and turned back to Sanji. "Dude. What the hell were you thinking? You better hope no-one finds out about this. Would you rather end up in jail and get butt-raped, huh? Cause that's seriously the way you're headed."

Zoro turned around and stormed off. He had succeeded in making a dramatic exit, gotta love it. He smiled to himself. Honestly, he didn't know if he had gotten through to him, but it made him feel good. At least.

Sanji watched the intern leave before he broke into horrendous giggle fits, he tried to stop but he found it impossible and collapsed onto his bed laughing like the maniac that he was. He laughed so long and hard and loud that he was sure that he could be heard down the hall through the sound proof glass; it certainly was echoing in here.

That was just rich, absolutely hilarious to the patient, the very idea was absurd and had the intern had more practice with men like him, he might have noticed that. Mental patients weren't sent to jail, they were a danger to the other inmates and to themselves, it would cost the jail too much money to house them, money that they didn't have. No, people like him were sedated, forced to live inside the world that they created themselves because it was easier to drug them than to deal with them.

Rolling onto his stomach, he looked at the guard, surely he was going to get more than yelled at for attacking two nurses and rendering one unconscious, but Zoro was also going to get into trouble if he didn't come back to fetch the nurse. Sanji was a danger, to leave a helpless nurse there with him was just irresponsible. The patient cackled again and rested his chin on his arms which were crossed halfway along the frame of the bed.

"Do you think he likes me~?", he asked with a masochistic smile, "I hope so because he's absolutely fascinating to me", rolling away from the guard he laid back and closed his eyes; the eyes were still there. They made him feel dirty, sick and twisted, just the way he usually liked it, but the feeling wasn't quite the same; mixed in with those was a tense feeling of being judged.

Always watching...always judging...but never giving their opinion...

"I wonder if that's how he feels, too...", Sanji found himself saying softly.

Zoro walked down the hallway a good distance, but stopped after a while, chewing on his lower lip. He'd forgotten something, he knew it, but … sighing, he turned around and stalked back to Sanji's room, shivering as the patient's giggles reached his ears.

Entering the room, he knelt to pick up the unconscious nurse, eyeing the rod more warily than he did Sanji. "I'll be back in a little bit, that is, if the head doctor doesn't mow me over about all this." He stated, grunting as he stood with the other on his shoulders. After a moment's worth of thought, he stooped again the grab the rod. "Until then, try not to get into more trouble."

Sanji watched him go, watching his form vanish behind the door and he knew better than to close his eyes; he didn't want to anyway. Rolling off the bed onto the floor he let his body lay crumpled as he watched the dark precipice of the space under the bed. There was no doubt in his mind that more nurses would come, greater in number and rank, those that were used to dealing with him and were none too gentle.

They would hold him down and make him take his pills the way they usually did when he chose not to take them; but it wasn't them that he wanted to ask. He wanted this new doctor of his, the new face in his little world, the owner of the eyes that haunted him; he wanted him to be the one to ask and he wanted to be the one to break this doctor.

He could just see it, laying him down to the floor, bloody and bruised, tied up in Sanji's straight jacket as the patient whispered sweet lies in his ear. Sanji desperately wanted him to watch, wanted him to see all the evil things that he could do and when it was all over and there was nothing more to do, he wanted him to stay there with him; wrapped up tight in that cell.

"So, are you still certain that you are up to handling patient 109, Zoro?" the head doctor asked when the green haired intern arrived after taking care of the unconscious nurse. When Zoro just stood there and gazed at him in an impassive way, the old man shook his head. "Certainly you see how dangerous 109 is, why risk that sort of injury upon yourself?"

Zoro didn't respond right away, trying hard not to snap at the old man. "Because nobody else besides you seems to want to pay attention to him, and he seems to enjoy attention." He commented, shrugging. "What better way to placate him than to show him that sort of attention?"

The head doctor sighed, shaking his head at the intern. "Very well, I suppose you do still have the six months left; you've only been here a day, asking you to make progress after one visit seems folly." Zoro grinned at the old man, pulling the small pill container out of his pocket and flipping it up into the air, only to catch it as it came back down.

"Alright, I suppose I should go and attempt to give these to him then." He commented, pocketing the container before the doctor could stop him. "I'm willing to bet that your other nurses would rather be tending to other patients that tangle with Sanji." When the old man didn't retaliate, Zoro turned and walked out of the room, heading for Sanji's chamber once again. Sanji didn't move to look when the door to his cell opened and someone stepped inside; he didn't care who it was.

"I'm not taking any pills", he said sourly, "and you can't force me!" He didn't want them, didn't need them, the eyes would watch him anyway.

"You know, if you'd just take them willingly, then I wouldn't have to force you." Zoro commented idly, tossing the container up in the air and catching it. When his patient rolled over to stare at him, his face went serious. "Dude, I'm not going to ask again, so listen this time. Do you trust me?" The blond jarred then, forcing himself up quickly and hitting his head on the bed frame only to fall back down, holding it with both hands.

Trust had nothing to do with it, nothing whatsoever, if this intern had more practice, he might have noticed that. Sanji didn't care for trust, he never really had. Everthing was an interaction, everything just depended on how you were perceived, how much a person trusted you had nothing to do with any of it.

Rolling onto his back, he released his head and watched the man above him. Zoro, concerned by the way Sanji had jerked, walked over to the blond and knelt so that he could make certain that Sanji was okay, and yet at the same time stay just far enough out of arms reach to avoid bruises.

"You okay there?" He asked, relieved to not see any blood; metal bed frames certainly hurt a lot when you banged against them. When Sanji just stared up at him, he sighed and held up the capsule. "Okay, either you let me give these to you, or the nurse mafia will give them to you. Which would you prefer?"

Arching an eyebrow at the intern's choice of words, Sanji seemed to concede, sitting up and taking the small bottle and emptying the three or four pills into his mouth. He was good at dry swallowing and pretended to do so before grabbing the intern by his jacket and forcing his mouth over Zoros. When he started to fight, the blond wrapped his hand around the back of the man's skull, holding him in place.

It was a strangely heated kiss but it didn't take long for Sanji to force the pills down the green haired man's throat and pull back marginally to smirk.

"Better enduce vomitting", he said evilly, giving him another short kiss before getting up and laying on the bed to watch. Caught completely off guard, Zoro coughed and nearly choked on the pills, pounding his chest with a fist to dislodge the foreign objects. Once he had ejected them from his body, he sat there panting, eyeing Sanji with a very wary expression, offset by the furious blush that crossed his face.

He had to give the blond props; that was a … creative way of refusing pills. But was it really needed to … to kiss him? Lifting a hand to his mouth, the intern rubbed his still tingling mouth; that had felt … Shaking his head, Zoro scowled at Sanji. "You're stubborn as hell, you know that right?" He asked, fighting the blush that was still spread across his face. Sanji dipped his head over the edge of the bed, having rolled onto his back to watch the intern vomit into the metal basin of the toilet.

"It's part of my charm", he said with a grin. Zoro arched an eyebrow, wondering how best to respond to that statement while he was still blushing and quite obviously embarrassed. As it was, his mouth opened and closed a few times before he managed to form words.

"I take it your enjoying yourself at my expense, if that grin is anything to go by." He huffed, thankful that the blush was mostly gone. Why _had_ he reacted like that, he wondered, but didn't think long on it; what did it matter, anyway?

Doing a walkover off of the bed, he paced to the intern and pulled him up by his hand, no sooner getting him to his feet before he pressed him hard against the wall with the weight of his body. They fit together in all the right places.

"And why shouldn't I?", he asked darkly before bowing his head and kissing him again, this time deeper and darker than it had been before. He wanted this man to try, to attempt to break him; to over ride his infernal nature and rape him in just the way he was raping him. To remove everything and abuse him. It was all he wanted, all he needed. Zoro's eyes went wide and he tried to shove Sanji away from him, mouth opening in a smothered shout.

That was a stupid idea, as Sanji's tongue tried to force its way into his mouth. Not wanting the blond to get away with that, Zoro bit down hard on the invading muscle, one of his knees pressing against Sanji's stomach to get more space between the two of them. Blushing, he tried to get the blond away from him, flinching when the faintest taste of blood hit his senses.

Sanji didn't stop, he ignored any pain that he was feeling and pressed harder against the other male, his hand coming down to fondle the most sensitive area of Zoro's body. Finally when he'd had his fun, though he hadn't truly done more than touch him, the patient pulled back and sat down by the toilet.

"You're going to have to do better than that if you expect to break me", he said with a grin, "you taste far too good for me to leave you alone, better learn quick." Sanji was right of course, and he knew that Zoro knew that as he watched him leave, looking thoroughly shooken up.

Once he was gone, the blond laid back down on the floor and watched the shadows under the bed again. He was hot, his body and mind were overheating and he was sure he was going to die, he'd had his fun, he didn't care if the nurses came in to give him his medication. He might have even done it willingly if it meant that Zoro would come back.

Outside the room, Zoro leaned against the cool wall, grateful that nobody else was down the hallway as he struggled to get his body under control. He'd moaned back in there, he knew it, but Sanji had been fondling him in places deemed best not thought of for a while. It had felt good, no matter what Zoro told himself to deny it. He had been told, hadn't he? He knew that Sanji was a game player.

'Yeah, too bad nobody mentioned that his 'games' involved sexual molestation.' Zoro thought to himself, trying to chase away how good that had felt.

"I suggest you bring nurses with you next time", Zoro jumped nearly half a mile when a voice sounded from beside him and he turned to see the head doctor standing there looking smug; and perhaps a little jealous.

Once Zoro had left to get another dose of the blond's pills as well as a couple nurses to help him, the doctor paced to the door and opened it, stepping inside.

Sanji rolled slightly from his place on the floor and looked up at the invader, an evil smirk on his face.

"Why doctor, come down from your pedistal to visit your favorite loon? How sentimental~" The doctor all but glared at him though that didn't seem to phase Sanji and instead drew him to push himself up so that he could get to his feet, "Oh come on, doc, you're not actually upset with me are you? You're the one that assigned him~" He smirked and circled around the man, pressing up against him and taking his pen without his noticing.

"What game are you playing?", the doctor asked as Sanji backed him into a wall, looming over him and grinning evily.

"One you can't win...", he said softly before driving the pen into the man's thigh and backing away so that he could watch as the old crone sunk to the floor cursing. Sanji sunk with him, having crossed the room and sat beside the toilet to watch with a cynical smile on his face. "Oops, must've slipped", he said darkly. The doctor propped himself up, using the bed for support as he tried to pull the pen out of his leg. Glaring at Sanji, the old man stumbled towards the door.

"I'm not having you win any games, Sanji, no matter what games they might be." He cursed before leaving the room, limping past Zoro and the two nurses that came with him. Giving the limping director a worried look, Zoro continued towards his patient's room, the nurses following him at a safe distance.

It took only one look at Sanji's smirk for Zoro to know what had just happened. Sighing, he held up the pills in front of the insane blond. "Alright, do you want to try this again?" Tipping his head up, Sanji watched the intern through a veil of blond hair, his smirk not wavering.

"Give me a kiss and I'll take them willingly~", he teased, his voice no more than a sultry purr; the nurses gave Zoro nervous glances and stepped back. Zoro looked at them in an accusing manner, and then turned back to Sanji to glower at him.

"Now is not the time to play around, you hear me?" He asked, stepping towards the bed, the pills tight in his hand. Sanji watched the man move from his place by the toilet before he smirked and tipped his head at the other man.

"Mmmmm I wasn't playing~", he said with a smirk. Continuing to lock eyes with the patient, Zoro knelt in front of him and sighed.

"There's other people in here, you …" He stopped himself, laughing darkly. "Of course, knowing you, you probably don't mind, do you?" Sanji smirked.

"Should've stuck to your guns", he said before taking the pills from the man's hand, dumping them into his mouth and dry swallowing them. This one was a people pleaser, something that didn't sit well with the blond; true he wasn't like to head doctor who looked down his long nose at all the patients, somehow thinking that he was better than all of them, but he tried too hard. Zoro sighed in relief once he was certain that Sanji actually swallowed the medicine this time, and that he wasn't trying to kiss him again.

Sanji watched as the nurses filed out of his cell, obviously deciding that they weren't needed as Sanji had taken his medication without much more than playful banter. It was a first for him and some of them were blatantly surprised; Zoro didn't realize what a mile marker that was.

**

The head doctor was waiting in the head office when Zoro came in to file his medication records, he was nursing the rather nasty stab wound that Sanji had dealt him when he looked up at the intern.

"It's a game to him, you know that right? He's going to break you, you just wait." Zoro couldn't help it; he rolled his eyes. He had figured that out on his own, hadn't he? But at the same time, part of him wondered why he was still letting Sanji play with him.

"I know that; if it's ever possible, I'm going to try and show him that I'm not a game he's going to win.' '_Easily'_ a sarcastic voice in the back of his head muttered, making him wince.

**

Zoro settled himself into the chair that had been provided for him. He was once again sitting in Sanji's cell, preparing to have a therapy session with his patient. The door opened and Sanji was forced in, kicking and fighting the entire way, he pushed back against the nurses holding him, shrieking and howling that he wasn't going to go. They sat him down in the chair provided for him and strapped him in; he smirked at Zoro as they did this.

"Restraints, cute...", in truth he hadn't had a therapy session since his first with the head doctor; and while that probably had something to do with the fact that he'd almost killed the man with the chair that he was sitting in, he really hadn't missed it. Zoro shivered involuntarily at Sanji's entrance, and he thanked that the restraints were still in place on the chair; he hadn't forgotten the molestation that he'd nearly routinely gone through at the blond's hands.

Rubbing his temple, Zoro waited for the nurses to leave before speaking directly to Sanji. "So, let's see how well this goes." He muttered, more to himself, and leaned forward to grin at Sanji. "Now I know the chances of this are low, but are the voices in your head behaving, or should I be hiding the pens?" He asked, knowing very well the chances of Sanji stabbing him with said writing utensil. Sanji smirked at him from his place in his chair, it really was quite comical that this novice would try all the things that the good doctor had learned didn't work on him.

"That depends, are yours?", he looked at the window nonchalantly; it wasn't voices that frightened him, it wasn't voices that haunted him, it were those eyes, those beautiful, terrible, judging eyes that stayed with him whether he was awake or asleep. No, it wasn't the voices, he could drown out voices, he couldn't get rid of those eyes, no matter how hard he hit his head, no matter how long he got the man before him to stay with him, once he was gone those eyes returned and stayed.

Laughing in order to hide his nerves, Zoro stood and began pacing, not really enjoying sitting in one spot for very long. Stopping after a moment, he stopped in front of Sanji again, and after a moment's worth of thought, pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Pausing for a moment, he proffered the box, as if asking his patient if he would want one. "This place reeks bad enough for them not to notice the smell, and we have a couple of hours together." He stated with a shrug when Sanji only looked at him.

Sanji looked at them surprised for a moment before smirking lightly and motioning as if to say that he couldn't because of the restraints, then he leaned back in the chair and watched the intern lightly.

"So why did you take this job? You don't seem like a self-serving elitist like the good doctor...", he said lightly, wondering if Zoro was going to tell him that he was the one asking questions, not the patient. He would have loved it if he did. Giving Sanji a wolfish grin, Zoro returned the package to his pocket and took a drag on his own cigarette before speaking.

"And here I thought _I_ was supposed to be the doctor." He commented idly, plopping back down into his chair. Propping his elbows on his knees, he shrugged. "What about you? How'd you get yourself kicked into the loony bin?" The smile that came onto Zoro's face sent a chill down Sanji's spine and he gave the intern an eager look; that was a look that even the good doctor had never given him, no one had given him and he loved it.

"You can't tell? I'm a danger to those around me", he said with a grin before leaning back, "at least that's what they tell me..."

"So are serial killers, and they more than often get thrown in the can if they're caught alive." Zoro pointed out, still grinning. At last, progress. "You must have done something pretty damn impressive to get tossed into this place." Sanji didn't answer but instead stared at the window quietly.

"How do you know that this place isn't a prison?", he asked, "Isn't this place a mental ward for the CRIMINALLY insane?", he glanced at the green haired man, "or did you not know that when you applied here?"

"I'm perfectly aware of what this place is." Zoro bit onto his cigarette. "If I wasn't, I wouldn't be working here and talking to you, damn it." Sanji said nothing but smirked and watched the man lightly, he was delicious when he was fighting an inner battle. Leaning back in the chair he seemed to relax as he breathed in the second hand smoke of the man's cigarette. Zoro gave the blond an accusing glare, but didn't speak for fear of losing his temper. If he snapped, it would more than likely set Sanji off, and it wouldn't be good for that to happen; that chair could be painful to get hit with.

Sanji let his mind drift to the first interview that the good doctor had interviewed him, he'd been asked why, why had he done what he'd done. What had the man that he'd killed done to him. But it had never been about what the man had done to him, it was what he was so sure that he was going to do to him. Sanji had been so sure that the man was plotting to hurt him, planning and watching him with those eyes. It was the eyes that had bothered him, the eyes were always what bothered him, they watched, they judged and they were what hurt you the most.

It wasn't until he'd gotten to court that they'd told him that he was violently schitzophrenic; he really didn't think that he was but he supposed it wasn't the job of the mentally insane to judge their own mental health. The good doctor had asked him so many questions that he couldn't remember many of them, they'd done the inkblots and they'd done the interview. What was it that had gotten him thrown in here, that was what Zoro wanted to know?

"I murderes the six prisoners that were in the jail cell with me...", he said softly, opening remorseless eyes to look at Zoro lightly, lords above he wanted a cigarette. Reaching, he took the one out of the intern's mouth and took a drag on it, leaning back once more as he let the smoke free from his lungs. "Their eyes...I just wanted their eyes, they wouldn't be able to watch me...but they wouldn't let me have them..." It made sense to him, but it had gotten him thrown in here.

Zoro's eyebrows shot up. Sanji had a thing with other people's eyes? That was certainly something he'd never heard of before … "Well, it stands to reason that they won't give up their eyes; people don't tend to give them up without a fight." He went to suck on his cigarette, only to remember that Sanji had snatched it from him. "I thought you said you didn't want one." Sanji took another drag on the cancer stick before letting it out, leaning forward and snuffing the butt in the ash tray that sat on the metal table between them.

"I don't", he said lightly before casting a liquid smirk at the intern, "I just wanted yours..." He wanted to disturb this man, to unnerve him and to make sure that he had his undivided attention after their six months together were up, then perhaps he would come back and Sanji could have another go at him.

"And I wouldn't have asked for their eyes if they'd quit their judging...even now they judge. You're judging me; it's your eyes that haunt me at night, your eyes that watch me and your eyes that I see when I close my eyes." He stood and paced, taking the chair with him, "I can't get them out, no matter how hard I hit my head, no matter how long I get you to stay with me, I can't get them to stop." It was Zoro's attention that he wanted; he wanted to make him watch as he did things that would make the intern's insides curl, as he made him feel things that he was sure neither of them truly wanted to feel. Zoro felt his stomach drop out, watching Sanji in worry as the blond paced the room. His nerves were rattling, and he no longer knew how to handle this man's statement's anymore from a professional standpoint, so he resorted to going with his gut instincts.

"What makes you think I'm here to judge you? God, I'm just trying to figure out what the hell is going on in your head so I can try and figure out what to do with you." He stated, rubbing his forehead. Sanji turned on him then, skating around the table and getting one arm free of the restraints, it wasn't much but it was enough. He grabbed the man by the arm and threw him against the wall, following after him and pinning him, pressing close to the intern and smirking down at him.

"What's going on my head?", he asked tauntingly, "What to do with me?", bending his head, he kissed him darkly, letting his free arm wander as the other stayed restrained. He circled his free arm down to the small of the intern's back and pulled back, holding him tight to him and panting into his ear. He was ignoring the sound of guards trying to get into the room. "Break me, abuse me, show me you're the one in charge~", he purred before the door slammed open and two guards ran to pull the mental patient away.

Sanji fought against their dragging but in the end he was pulled out of the room and away to his cell as a nurse came in to see if the intern was alright. Still slumped against the wall, Zoro shook the nurse off, telling her that he was fine, even though he was emotionally very rattled. That had been the third time Sanji had kissed him like that since Zoro had begun to work with him, and every single time, Zoro had been incapable of fighting back, for some reason unknown to him.

Sanji's words right before he'd been pulled out of the cell came back to Zoro, and he shivered and walked out of the room, heading for home; he was done for the day, so all he needed to do was to talk with the old codger who ran the place before he could go him. 'So, he wants me to show him who's in charge physically, eh?' He pondered, but then shook his head. 'No way in hell I could do that; I'd get my ass into some serious shit if I got found out.' The head doctor watched the tape again and again as he listened to the faint sound of them talking, what Sanji said at the end he couldn't hear very well and there was no need, just the actions told him something.

Sanji was much more physical with this new intern than he had been with any other doctor save perhaps him and it was definitely a different kind of attention. When he was in the same room as Sanji, the blond took every opportunity to cause harm to him; stabbing him, biting him, forcing him to medicate him and in the end give up on whatever endeavor that the old man was on.

But with Zoro, Sanji was flirtatious, vindictive and cruel, but still flirtatious; he hadn't truly hurt the young man yet. He'd forced his pills down his throat, fought with him, pinned him to the wall, touched him and even kissed him but he hadn't made any move to do what he'd done to the old doctor the first day he'd been in his care.

He could still remember it very well, the patient had taken the pen out of his pocket before he'd gone to get his pills, dissected it as the doctor was gone and used it to slice into the doctor's hand when he'd come back with the pills.

When the doctor had curled slightly in pain, Sanji had pushed him head first into the wall and had run around him and down the hall. He'd nearly made it past the southern half of the building, when he'd been caught by three nurses and a guard by the pool.

"You're lucky, boy", the old codger said lightly as the door opened and Zoro entered, "he could have killed you..." Zoro let out a dry laugh, lounging against the far wall with his hands tucked into his pockets.

"I think he enjoys screwing with my mind too much to want to kill me." He stated blithely, although the thought of Sanji possibly killing him sent a cold shock through his spine. "If he wanted me dead, he probably would have put a lot more effort into it than he has already." Scowling at the look the head doctor was giving him, he shook his head. "Don't try and tell me otherwise; I don't need to be a mental doctor to know _that_." The old crone shook his head lightly.

"I wont dispute you", he said, "though I will remind you that his facination with you could hinder any chance at making progress with him. After all, as humans we'll do anything for the attention of the person from whom we want it most." Sighing lightly he turned the camera feed to the one of the guards putting Sanji back into his cell, they'd already finished by now so he rewound the tape and played it, watching the figure of the man on all five television screens fight against the men manhandling him. "And it's your attention that he wants the most...so how do you know he's even making progress when it seems that he is?"

**

In his room, Sanji was laying on the bed silently, staring at the ceiling when a voice broke into his silent world.

"Sanji", tipping his head off of the bed he glanced at the face beyond the small window of sound proof glass. Those eyes, Zoros eyes were there, perhaps this was a figment of his imagination?

"What do you want?", he asked curiously, returning his gaze to the perfectly smoothe surface above his head; deciding that he was going to get some deliciously smart remark if those eyes certainly were a figment of his imagination. Either that or they wouldn't answer at all.

"You...", the blond jumped, eyes opening wide as he turned to look at the eyes peering at him through the little window.

"What?", the door opened at his question and the intern walked in, closing the door behind him.

"Get up", Sanji jumped as the intern advanced on him, grabbing him by the wrist and wrenching him to his feet. The blond's arm gave a painful rebuttal to the action but it wasn't enough to make the patient disobey. He was barely given the time to catch his breath before he was pushed into the corner and his wrists were twisted up behind his back.

He whimpered at the feeling of his shoulder cracking and panted harder when Zoro forced him against the wall, smashing his arms uncomfortably between his back and the cold brick of the wall.

"What, Sanji? You asked to be broken~", the intern taunted as a hand came down to grope between his thighs roughly. It went into his pants and the intern gave a vicious sneer at the hardness he found there, "and it seems you are loving the attention~"

Sanji could hardly speak, not that he really could anyway because when he opened his mouth to try two fingers forced their way down his throat, having abandoned his steeled flesh in favor of choking him while the intern's knee took over the job of jostling his sensitive flesh.

All of a sudden it all stopped, the entire room vanished and all that was left was nothing; nothing but black and those eyes, looking down on him, watching him, and now laughing at him as he was left there battered and abused and utterly excited by it.

Sanji's eyes snapped open to the view of a pitch black room, the only light coming from the windows at the far end of the hall. Forcing himself up against the wall he panted, feeling the cool brick at his back; so it had been a dream?

Bringing his knees up, he panted, feeling cold sweat run down his entire body as a heat pulsed between his legs. He was over heating again, his mind and body both rebelling against him, angry at the stimulation and obvious lack of attention. He ignored them, soon falling into a dreamless sleep sitting the way he was, to be found the next morning by the first wave of nurses to give him his medication.

If he was lucky it would be Zoro who found him instead of someone else. If it was Zoro that found him, he might've even been willing to take his medication without too much of a fight.


	2. Haunted

At his small apartment, Zoro sat on his sofa, flipping through the channels on the TV without really paying much attention to them. His mind was mostly on how oddly Sanji had begun acting around him as of late. It was unnervingly sexual, and Zoro didn't know how to handle it. True, he didn't know how to handle romance in _general_, but having a sociopathic scizo sexually harassing you with such aggressive movements was completely unusual.

'I don't know how the hell to handle him anymore …' Zoro sighed, rubbing his forehead. 'The only way that seems to get through to him is physical violence, but I _really_ hope I won't have to resort to that. Morning came much too early for Zoro but it had felt like the night had dragged on to Sanji who was still sitting up when the intern came in to give him his medication.

His eyes were wide and he was holding his head, his knees pulled up tight to his chest. The eyes, they were still watching, still judging, they woudn't let him sleep because when he closed his eyes, they were there, staring at him. Zoro gave the patient a symphatethic look and reached out, shaking his knee after making certain that the nurses who had come with him were ready in case anything went wrong.

"Hey, you, medicine time." he muttered, waiting for Sanji's response. He hadn't been able to get the blond out of his mind at all the night before. Sanji reacted the moment after Zoro spoke, he launched off of the bed and wrapped his arms around the intern's chest, holding onto him but not saying a word. He was still shaking but it hadn't been the part of the dream about Zoro that had frightened him; no he'd loved that, he'd been almost frightened by just how much he'd loved it. What had scared him was what the eyes. They were the reason that he was here and they were the reason why he didn't close his eyes even as he burried his face into Zoro's ribs, as he knocked him back onto the floor.

Caught off guard, Zoro let out a shout and tried to get Sanji off of him, the nurses that had come with him scrambling to get the patient off of him. It was a tough battle, as Sanji had a death grip on Zoro and wasn't letting go. "What the -- what the hell are you doing?" Zoro hissed, startled and confused. Sanji said nothing, his entire body shaking as he fought down tears; he closed his eyes to blink the tears away and the eyes were there.

"Make them go away", he whimpered, "you're here, why are they still here?" The nurses pulled at the blond's shoulders but he refused to let go, he needed to find a way to make the eyes go away.

"Make who go away?" Zoro asked, confused. "If you mean the nurses, they'll leave when you take your medicine." Shoving on Sanji's shoulders, he gave the nurses a look that was best described as somewhere between confused and somewhat unnerved.

A slight feel of wetness on his shirt made Zoro look down. Was Sanji ... crying?? Burrying his head further into the man's chest, he whimpered, it wasn't the nurses, but how could he tell the intern that? He shook his head without looking up and all of the nurses watched in complete confusion; none of them had ever seen the normally violent patient act this way.

Confused, Zoro gave the nurses an equally baffled look before wrapping an arm around Sanji. After another moment of thought, he jerked his head towards the door, trying to get the nurses to leave. Although they both gave him uneasy looks, they did as they were told, closing the door as they left and standing on either side of it in case they were needed.

Once they were gone, Zoro rubbd Sanji's back. "Alright, the nurses are gone, Sanji." He mumbled. Even when the nurses were gone, Sanji still didn't lift his head, he held onto the intern silently before taking a deep breath and pulling back, taking the small cup of pills from the green haired male and downing them easily. Then he returned to his bed laying down and staring at the wall. If he kept his eyes open he coudln't see them. They were watching, oh yes they definitely were still there, but he coudlnt see them.

Utterly floored by the fact that there had been absolutely no resistance, no playful banter, Zoro looked at Sanji again and walked over to the bed. "Are you running a fever or something?" He asked, letting the back of his hand rest on Sanji's forehead. The blond didn't respond, he just focussed on keeping his eyes open until they dried out and he had to close them. They were there when he closed his eyes; reaching up suddenly, he lifted himself up onto his elbow and pulled Zoro down to him, kissing him darkly.

His mind flashed to the dream and he whimpered this time not in fear but in wanton desperation. Bringing his other arm up, he grabbed onto the other man's shoulder and tried to steady himself as he slowly lost his balance, in the end he lost the fight though and pinned Zoro to the floor.

"You're haunting me", he whispered.

Zoro stared up at him, panting as he tried to get Sanji off of him. The kiss had made him blush again, dammit. "Wh ... what the hell does that mean?!" He demanded, not really in the mood to play a game of twenty questions.

"It's you, your fault, you're the one to blame. I was fine, I was just fine, we were all just fine then you stepped in", Sanji was panting as he took another kiss, his mind slowly slipping away, "you brought everything down, I want to hurt you, can't you bleed for us? No, that would hurt me too much." Rearing back he ran his fingers across Zoro's face before wheeling back and punching him hard, "You did it.", he repeated as he reared back and hit him again.

Sometimes the hits were to the face, others he would bring the butt of both fists down on the green haired man's chest, slowly the blows became harder and harder and Sanji's voice became louder and louder.

"Your fault!", he screamed, "You did it! But you can't go back now, bleed for us, stop cheating! You cheat!", finally he abandoned hitting Zoro and got up, one might have thought he'd have kicked him, but he didn't. Picking up the toilet he hit the wall with it not once but twice before dropping it behind him and slamming his head against the wall hard enough to split the skin and leave a bloody smear.

"They keep watching, they're never gone, your fault", he croaked as he staggered for a moment before bracing himself on the wall and sliding down it; his vision going fuzzy. "Your…fault…", he managed before falling unconscious against the wall. Stunned, Zoro sat still for a moment before scrambling over to where Sanji laid unconscious. None of his ramblings had made any sense to him at all, but right now, he had other things to worry about.

Quickly calling in teh nurses for aid, he managed to get Sanji bandaged up and lying on the bed before he began to wonder about what on earth the other male had meant. "How could I be haunting him? Gah ... he makes less and less sense each day ..."

"You'll have to take him to the hospital wing", came a voice from behind Zoro, it was the old doctor, watching Sanji with a pitying look, "he could have a concussion" His eyes didn't leave Sanji; he'd never reacted to someone like this, to the novice he was sure that Sanji's admittance had meant nothing, but to someone who was so used to dealing with the loon this was something big. This meant that Zoro was getting to the blond, this meant that he had the chance to make some progress given the right environment and medication balance. "His medication will have to be changed as well", he said lightly before turning and walking away.

Zoro gave the head doctor a dark look. 'Thank you for showing some concern.' He thought sarcastically, picking Sanji up and carrying him to the hospital wing.

~~  
It was a few hours later that the doctor who Zoro had handed Sanji off to returned, obviously unnerved by something. "What's the damage?" Zoro asked, knowing his wording might make him seem uncaring when it wasn't the case.

He did care about Sanji, in some odd, twisted way. The blond's mentality was more than likely rubbing off on him, and that was what was unnerving Zoro the most. It wouldn't be good for him if he got attached to a mentally insane man, it wouldn't be good at all. The nurse said nothing to pertain to the other's feigned detachment but instead scanned her eyes over the chart that was on her clip board and nodded her red headed head lightly. She was a thin woman but surprisingly strong for her appearance,

"Well he has some cranial bruising and a minor concussion", she didn't seem at all phased at the fact that he'd done it to himself, perhaps that was because in the medical wing of a mental hospital this was something of a normality. "We'll have to keep him for a night or two, you can deliver his medication yourself if you like, but you wont be able to take him for a therapy session for at least two days, it would taint your recordings because he's not in his normal mental state..."

Then she put the clipboard down onto her hip and looked at him curiously, "may I ask, off of the record, what on earth got this kind of reaction from him? Sanji's hardly ever in here, so when he is it's an abnormality, usually he's the one sending others in here." Drawing a deep breath, Zoro shook his head. "I don't understand it myself; he started spouting off some nonsense about me haunting him." He explained, leaning against the cool wall. "How can I be haunting him when I'm here for five hours a day at most?"

Then Zoro remembered; Sanji seemed to have a bad connection with eyes ... The nurse shrugged lightly.

"I suppose you should count yourself lucky", she said lightly, "that you're not the one on the hospital bed, the head of this wing had to tend to Zeff-the head doctor of the mental wing-nearly every week that he was in charge of Sanji. If Sanji is telling you taht you're haunting him, you'd better count your lucky stars that he hasn't attacked you yet and keep your distance."

'Personally, I'm shocked Sanji hasn't killed Zeff yet.' Zoro wanted to say, but wisely bit his tongue to keep himself quiet. "I'm already doing that; I come in each day expecting to at least get a bruise or two, if not worse." He replied, glacing into the room that Sanji was resting in. Sighing, he turned around to leave. "I'll come in here with his meds tomorrow morning; the head said he'd be changing some of the meds around." The nurse nodded and gave a pretty smile.

"I will inform Chopper that you're Sanji's new doctor; you'll have to sign in and out with every visit, but no one should ask you for clearance..."

**

Sanji felt himself slowly coming to consciousness, he wasn't quite there yet though because his body felt as a lead weight to him at the moment.

The eyes were there and now a mouth was with them, grinning evily down at him in his semi-awake state.

"You're attached to him", the mouth said, it's far too red lips forming the words in a greasy way. Sanji shook his head, no, no he wasn't; this novice was just another play thing; just another toy to be broken and tossed away…wasn't he? "You like him, Sanji, admit it~", the lips cackled, "you want him to do to you what he did" Again Sanji shook his head and he brought his hands up to cover his ears; no, no, the mouth was wrong, the voice was wrong.

"You're wrong", he mumbled, "it's not true, you're wrong", the voice had to be wrong, because if it was right that meant that he had liked what had been done to him. He shook his head and curled up, holding his temples tightly as he whimpered and kicked knocking over a bedside table and his I.V. with a crash that would probably draw a nurse or two.

"I'm not wrong Sanji", the voice cackled, "you want him to use and abuse you, you want him to hurt you, to degrade you and when it's all over you want to come crawling back to him", the lips grinned wider, "begging for more~"

"YOU'RE WRONG!", the blond shrieked, kicking and throwing anything that he could get to, though it was a tad difficult because his arms had been tied to the bed and had short leashes attached to them.

**

The beeper at Nami's hip went off and for a moment she thought it was a reminder to give a patient their meds or switch out I.V.s but when she looked down and it read 109 911 she jolted.

"Come on, I'm going to need your help", she said sternly before taking the intern by the wrist and leading him to the room where Sanji was being kept for treatment. Inside the room, Sanji was screaming and lurching; kicking and fighting the nurses that were attempting to hold him down and reattach the I.V. that he'd ripped out. Zoro, who was not used to being dragged hither and yon by his wrist, nearly tripped as he followed Nami back towards the room that they had just left, face paling when he saw what all was going on inside the room.

"Sanji, calm down, dammit!" He shouted, entering the room in an attempt to help the nurses. But Sanji didn't calm down, if anything the man's voice only made him scream louder and harder, lurching from the bed and kicking one of the nurses in the face.

"Get out! Get away!", he howled, "You're wrong!"

Although he was sweating bullets, Zoro refused to back down, and eventually managed to get himself between Sanji and the other nurses. "CALM DOWN!" He shouted, slamming into the patient with all of his body weight behind him. Sanji stilled, wedged between the seemingly ungiving forces of the wall and Zoro's body; he stood there-or rather half hung there-silent and panting. His hands came up and held onto Zoro's shoulders for a long moment before he half heartedly tried to push the green haired male away. He didn't want to get him away from him but he was hurting him with how hard he was being pushed into.

Bending his head, the blonde gave his ear a tender kiss and grinned a devilish grin.

"Look who's come to visit me~", he cackled before shoving Zoro roughly away and into the hospital bed. He advanced on the intern so fast that none of the nurses had quite enough time to react. "Come down from your pretty pedistal and get physical~", he felt like a broken record player but it was all that would come out.

Pinning the intern to the bed, the nurses pulled at his shoulders and tried to pull him away, but the patient would not be moved as he grinned down at Zoro. He'd done something, he'd taken an initiative to hurt him, he'd slammed into him, he hadn't curbed himself at all and Sanji just loved it.

The patient positioned himself easilly between the intern's legs, not on purpose but it served the effect he was trying to get at. Nurses grabbed his hands and twisted them back, trying still to get him away and it seemed that they were getting to him. They wrenched him back for a moment before he jerked forward and planted his mouth hard and misplaced down on Zoro's lips.

"Buck a little harder, I can't quite feel you yet~", he crooned, as he pulled away after a long moment. His words only held their grip for a moment before he was wrenched off of the intern and thrust against the wall, a straight jacket ready and willing to imprison him having been brought by a couple of the larger male nurses who'd left the female nurses-who were greater in number-to pacify the loon.

He cackled and giggled in utter delight as the buckles were fastened and a mask was wrapped around his face to stop him from assaulting any others. The blond was truly enjoying this, that much was obvious. Zoro laid still on the bed, sitting up after a long moment. He hadn't been expecting any of that, least of all the rather blatant sexual assault in front of the other nurses. Which, in hindsight, was kind of a stupid thought; what on earth would stop Sanji from doing so?

'Apart from you throwing him into a wall again.' A dark voice in the back of Zoro's mind muttered, making him wince as he sat up, some of the other nurses asking him if he was okay. "I'm fine, I'm fine, just a little rattled." He insisted, although he warily watched Sanji from the corner of his eye as the blond was put into the straight jacket, giggling behind his mask.

Standing up, he walked over and stared down at Zoro. "Alright, if this is the last interruption, I'll be back here tomorrow with your medicine. Try not to get yourself into more severe trouble until then, you hear?" He asked, turning around and striding towards the door. Sanji only laughed harder as Zoro left and the nurses lifted him to put him back in the bed; he coudlnt' have cared less if the green haired man was angry with him which it was obvious that he was; he was having far too much fun to care. It was fun, disrupting the world of this man who was just so fascinating to him; he wanted him, him and no one else. This wasn't an uncorrupted establishment, it had it's resident guards who liked to play a little "head" game with the patients. But they didn't bother him, he was too dangerous for any of them to brave no matter how pretty he was; none of them fancied getting their dick chopped off or going through any other form of mutilation just to get their rocks off.

Nami hurried to follow after the intern, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him into what looked to be the staff lounge before closing and locking the door behind him.

"How long has he been doing that to you?", she asked concernedly; Sanji never acted this way to his doctors, he wasn't sexually abusive, he loved hurting but he'd never raped before; not that he'd just raped Zoro but still. If he was acting this way it meant something, something big; Sanji liked this man and cold control his violent impulses around him.

"Pretty much ever since I started here." Zoro admitted, glancing over his shoulder at the room were Sanji was being held. "I didn't think too much of it at first; I thought he did the same to the other doctors that had been assigned to him before." Seeing Nami's look, he arched an eyebrow. "Hasn't he?"

"No. You're the first one he's acted like that towards." Nami shook her head, sighing heavily.

Zoro felt a shiver race through his spine; the only way he had managed to keep himself from freaking out at Sanji's sexual advances was because he had thought that he wasn't the only one who got such special attention from the madman. But now that he knew he was, the green haired male felt his defenses go up; he had to be more careful ...

"Do you know what that means?", Nami asked after a moment, "he likes you, he's never liked anyone since he got here. You have a real chance at making the progress with him that Zeff never could." Reaching she petted the intern's shoulder, "besides, having a patient like Sanji like you isn't the worst thing that could happen..."

Zoro gave Nami a look. "Please tell me that last comment was sarcastic." He stated flatly, shaking his head. "I don't know about you, but I don't really enjoy being the one who gets molested by an insane person." The thought of possibly being able to make a breakthrough with Sanji did excite him, but the prospect of having his pants ripped off in the process was not all that appealing.

At least, he kept telling himself that ... Nami giggled a little at the intern's hesitance before putting a hand on the man's shoulder and shaking her head.

"Give it a chance, he's a real bastard but you just might surprise yourself..", of course she meant this to be innocent encouragement, but to Zoro that might as well have been his death sentence.


	3. Breaking Down

A week had passed, and now Zoro found himself slowly starting to adjust to the fact that the paitent he was tending to seemed to be prone to sexually assaulting him. It was a hard fight to not give in and let his pants get torn off or to slam Sanji into the wall or ground of the cell to get him to stop.

'Another day, another assault ..' Zoro sighed to himself, grabbing Sanji's meds before walking towards the patient's room.

Sanji was being moved back to his regular cell today to the utter joy of the nurses on staff in the medical wing who'd been driven nuts by the patient's constant lashing out for his own amusement. It was the last day that Zoro had to sign into the register-that is if things went without incident, though with Sanji there never was a gaurantee of that.

He was laying on his assigned hospital bed when Zoro arrived, looking deceptively normal with not a single nurse in the room with him though two men who were wearing scrubs stood outside his door looking rather like the security one might find at a night club. The kind that responded when a man needed intimidating. Sanji wasn't afraid of them though, that much had been made clear the first day when he'd thrown the wall phone at one and stabbed the other with a syringe that he'd gotten out of the drawer. They'd made sure to lock all the cupboards and drawers since then.

Looking up when Zoro entered the room, Sanji surprisingly didn't react but instead went back to the job of inspecting his nails as though he were any other nurse come to check up on him.

Zoro didn't comment, but instead sighed and pulled out the blond's pills. "Alright you, time for your meds." He stated, walking closer to Sanji's bed and extending the medicine. "I know I can't wait for you to get out of this room; it's so irritating having to actually sign in to give you medicine."

Sanji said nothing, but he didnt move to take the pills either instead, getting up, he moved to head towards the door, meaning to be accompanied back to his cell. Reaching he brushed the back of his hand gently against Zoro's face then knocked the pills out of his hands.

"I'm not taking them today", he said lightly, why should he have to take them? They didn't work, the eyes were always there, watching and laughing, the only thing that the pills made leave was the mouth which likes to spout taunts about his fascination with Zoro.

Scowling, Zoro picked up the pills and grabbed onto Sanji's arm to keep him from moving. "Sorry, but I don't think 'no' is the right answer." He growled, partially from sleep deprivation and partially from nerves; he wasn't in the mood to play around today.

The blonde wrenched his arm away.

"No!", he snapped, "they don't work!", he held his head, "The eyes are there whether I take them or not, the only thing they stop is the voice, they only shut the voice up! None of it goes away! I can still feel it!" Spinning suddenly he took the pills and threw them into the bed pan that hadn't been cleaned out yet today.

Glowering at the patient, Zoro stood between Sanji and the door that led to the rest of the hospital. "Oh, and here I thought that you would at least like some silence once in a great while, or do you enjoy hearing those voices nattering at you all day?" He asked, making a mental note to grab more medicine once the blond was either sedated or in his cell, if not both.

Sanji gave a devilish smirk and a cynical laugh, advancing on the intern enough to make the guards standing outside brace themselves incase they had to intervene. His voice was soft but that didn't mean it was lacking in emotion, he was just as trepident as ever.

"That's not the point is it?! It's all or nothing, right?! So explain something to me, what's the point of taking medication that doesn't work?" He smirked wider and loomed over Zoro momentarilly, "I'll let you cheat, and copy off my paper, the answer is- there is no point!" Slipping away from the intern, he stepped out of the room and was immediately grabbed by the guards. One of them immediately got a swift kick to the groin and crumpled to the floor.

The other recoiled slightly before pulling on a brave face that Sanji only glared at before he stepped around him and headed down the hall. He sidestepped when the guard moved to grab him and just continued in route to his cell.

Momentarily stunned when Sanji spoke to him, Zoro snapped back into the real world as one of the other nurses crumpled and fell to the ground, clutching at his groin. Racing out of the room, the green haired male tackled Sanji, tring to knock him to the ground and pin him down. "And where the hell do you think you're going?" He growled as he forced his weight down on Sanji, knowing that he was far heavier than the thin blond.

Part of Sanji wanted to grin at the sudden contact and the fact that the intern was starting to get rough with him, but that part wasn't large enough for the patient to act on it and he instead tried unsuccessfully to force the green haired man's body off of him.

"To my cell", he snapped, running his hand down to the intern's buttock and smirking as he caught it in a rough grip, "is that a problem now?"

All of a sudden Zoro was ripped away from him and when he saw Zeff's face glaring down at him, he held up his hands.

"I wasn't touching him!", two guards, similar to the ones that had stood outside the door of his hospital room grabbed him and wrenched him to his feet. Zeff's glare never once wavered, though the patient only gave a laughing smirk to it. "I didn't hurt him, I would never hurt him!" He leered at Zoro, wrenching towards him, "I just want to fuck him! Please let me?"

The grin on the blonde's face stated that he knew exactly what he was saying and was calculating the result of this in his mind. "Whadaya say, Doc? Let him have me, you obviously can't keep it up..." For a brief moment it looked as though Zeff were about to hit Sanji for the last comment but instead he just told the guards to take the patient back to his cell.

"But I wasn't touching him! I wasn't touching him! Get the fuck off of me!", he screamed. Zeff watched him go and when he was out of sight but his screams were still audible, the head doctor turned to Sanji and watched him for a long moment.

"Are you still so sure about this patient? The more you work with him, the more obsessed with you he gets; how long will it be before he does serious damage?"

Zoro didn't respond at first, still staring in the direction that they had drug Sanji, the blond's words still ringing in his ears. 'Is he trying to make me go crazy?' Zoro wondered, confused. When Zeff began to talk to him, he paid only minimal attention as he tried to decide on what the hell he was supposed to do now.

Finally though, he sighed. "And how many other doctors and nurses might have gotten maimed if I wasn't here for him to vent his energy on?" Zoro asked, knowing that Zeff would keep the real number to himself, regardless of what it was. "At least with me here, you know who he's venting it all on, and I do know how to defend myself." He just had to learn how to get used to Sanji's way of thinking, that was all.

Hell would probably freeze over before such happened, but Zoro was going to try his damndest anyway.

"You really think that you're gonna break him...", Zeff said with a smirk before nodding lightly, "very well...", turning he walked away, his limping form fading into the elevator and heading to his office.

Sanji was sitting in his usual spot between the toilet and the bed when Zoro came in, his mind trailing after memories that he'd long since repressed, substituting Zoro's face for the face that he couldn't remember. The name escaped him, he didn't know the face anymore but he could remember the voice, the kind hands and the personality. A personality that he'd loved more than life itself.

"You're just like him...", he mumbled, "you have the same ethic, the same thought process, you look at me like he did and you have his dislike of hurting me the way I want you to..." He burried his face into his hands and closed his eyes, sinking himself into the darkness, "But you're-" Zoro wasn't the person that he reminded Sanji of, he wasn't the same, that person was gone, long since deceased that had been why he'd-...

The memory was gone, forgetting was easier, but those eyes were watching him, making him feel guilty for no reason at all...or was there a reason? He couldn't remember anymore...

Kneeling in front of Sanji, Zoro tenatively reached out and put a hand on Sanji's knee. "I'm what?" He asked, keeping his voice down. "Who are you talking about?" The questions were dangerous to ask in such close quarters, but Zoro got the feeling that he wouldn't be able to figure anything else out unless he asked them from where he was.

Hands came up to hold a golden haired head and Sanji whimpered.

"I don't know...I don't know...I don't know his name anymore, I can't picture his face...I loved him... I made him hurt me, I loved it, he didn't", the patient raised his head and glared, "then that other man took him away, the one that looked like the man I killed. He deserved to die, the man I killed probably didn't but he looked like him and I thought-" He;d thought that he'd been the one, fear had taken him over and he'd thought that he was going to kill him too. It had made sense at the time and even now it made sense, but then- it didn't.

Shaking his head he watched the intern for a moment before reaching and wrapping his hands to cradle the man's face. He got to his knees before the green haired man and kissed him in a scarily gentle way, laying the other down and looming above him as though they were lovers instead of patient and doctor.

"Trust me", he begged, "that's all I want...", no one trusted him and therefore he had no one to trust; the only person that he'd ever trusted he couldn't remember. Maybe it wasn't that he couldn't remember, maybe it was that he didn't want to, maybe those memories he didn't have were better off not being there.

Zoro remained quiet for a good long time, wondering about how best to respond to the statement. He'd never been in love before, he never had wanted to be in love, so he couldn't begin to empathise in that aspect of it all. But now some of the things that Sanji had done were starting to make sense ... well, all except the small bit about the eyes, but Zoro doubted that he would understand that aspect for a long time.

But just wanting someone who would trust him ... "Look, I can see where not too many people would trust you; you're one insane guy." Zoro started, but held up a hand just in case Sanji tried to interrupt him. "But, if that's all that you really want, I can start trying to trust you, but you gotta give me a good reason to trust you."

Sanji ran his fingers up the man's chest in a carress that was out of place with his usual violence of nature, he brought Zoro's arms above his head and held them there by the wrists with one hand as the other snaked under the inter's coat and shirt. The flesh beneath was hot as liquid steel under his fingertips.

One handedly unbuttoning the trail of buttons on the practitioners shirt, he pulled it open and bent so he could continue to give needed pressure on Zoro's wrists so he couldn't fight him, but still be able to lick up his chest.

"Have I hurt you?", he asked, "have I stabbed or kicked or bitten you? Tell me what I did to warrant your distrust and I will gladly make ammends." His hand danced down to the inside of Zoro's thigh, his mouth still very occupied with his leg.

The eyes were there when he shut his eyes, they were watching him; the mouth appeared.

"LIAR!", it screamed and Sanji stopped in his ministrations; sitting up, closing his eyes and holding his head. "Liar! Cheat! Betrayer!"

"No, I'm not..."

"You promised to be faithful!"

"I am faithful", the blonde croaked, not aware that he was speaking aloud.

"LIAR!!!", pain wracked through Sanji and he screamed, images flashed through his mind, faces and pictures, blood, a gun, he and a man whose face he couldn't remember; memories that he'd pushed away because they hurt too much. They were hurting him now.

Zoro's mind all but shut off as Sanji started caressing him, mouth hanging open in shock, unable to form any sort of response. Hell, he could barely hear what the blond was whispering to him as those skinny fingers trailed up his chest.

What the hell was that pounding in his ears? It was loud and rapid, and the only thing he could hear over it was his own traitorous moans as he surrendered and let Sanji begin to have his way with him, unable to fight back against him at the moment.

The instant the screaming started, however, everything became shockingly clear, and he reached out to Sanji, trying to get him to relax. "What are you talking about?" Zoro asked, worry fighting away the terror. "Sanji, what's wrong? SANJI!"

Zoro's screams fell on deaf ears as his hands held his head; the eyes and mouth reverbriated and he suddenly felt sick. Scrambling to the toilet he barely made it before he threw up the contents of his stomach, bile and some half dissolved sleeping medication that had been given to him in the hospital.

"I didn't lie", he whimpered, "I didn't cheat, I didn't betray", he felt and sounded like a wounded animal as he held onto the toilet bowl, "I didn't...!"

"Sinner! Akira was right to leave you!" Sanji shook his head furiously as the mouth spoke.

"No...no... Akira didn't leave, Akira would never have left me...Akira loved me...", the lips laughed and he opened his eyes, he could still hear the voice and he panicked as it taunted him; his heart leaping to his chest.

"You only think he did, he didn't love you, no one loves you! You're a sinner..." Getting up Sanji started pacing and wringing his hands.

"You're wrong!"

"Sinner! Never Loved!"

"You're wrong!", he held his head but kept pacing, this time faster.

"Akira hated you!" Sanji snapped, he kicked the toilet over, spilling it's contents, he threw himself against the wall and hit it with his fists and head.

"YOU'RE WRONG! AKIRA LOVED ME! YOU'RE LYING! LIAR!! AKIRA LOVED ME! HE DID!", two arms came to hold onto him as he screamed and threw his fit and finally when he had exhausted his energy, he sank into Zoro's chest like a tired child, "he did...he did..."

Sitting where he was, stunned and incapable of movement, Zoro didn't know how to react at all to anything until Sanji had gone after the wall. Standing up, he'd managed to get his arms around the raging blond, and he let out a heavy sigh of relief when Sanji began to calm himself.

Settling onto the floor, still holding Sanji, Zoro murmured, "It's alright Sanji ..." He didn't say anything else, knowing that it would be stupid, ill thought out, and just all in all a bad idea. Making a mental note to go through newspaper articles from around the time Sanji had come to the institute, Zoro continued to try and sooth the patient, ignoring or perhaps forgetting that his shirt was still unbuttoned.


	4. Complicated

The article read like a death sentence, it's language was slow and ominous but it read clearly.

_Akira Soshi, a resident of High Water, was killed in a mugging on Friday night; the perpetrator took his wallet. Akira's life partner, who was with him at the time, witnessed the murder and, being severely disturbed by the event, is currently being assessed by a police therapist at this time._

The article went on to talk a little about a happy couple who had been torn apart by a petty thief and described the thief loosely, but the words struck Zoro. Sanji had witnessed the murder of the person that he loved the most, that had started this all.

Skating through more articles, he found the one about the man that Sanji killed. The picture matched the description that the previous had given about the man but this one had been innocent. He'd been a local bike messenger, a man with no education but worked hard to support his wife and two sons. In the article the family spoke about Sanji, the children expressing hate and the thoughts that Sanji should have been the one to die and not their father. But the wife said no such words of hate, she only said that she felt sorry for the mentally ill man who'd killed her husband.

"It's so sad", she'd said, "that this man hasn't gotten help before now, it took the death of my husband to finally get him what he needs..."

Zoro read the article with torn emotions; it hurt to finally know what had landed Sanji into the institute in the first place, but a small part of him was glad that now he finally knew. While the blond's reactions weren't completely understandable, at least now Zoro had a good idea of how to handle some of the things that the blond threw at him.

"You going to sit there all day?" Zoro glared upward as the archive keeper at the local library leaned on the table he was using. Seemingly not bothered by the expression he was getting, the teen grinned at him. "You're going to get a crick in your neck if you keep this up for too much longer."

"Thank you for your concern, Luffy." Zoro growled out again, feeling a vein in his forehead twitch. "I know what I'm doing; go back to your part of the library and help the little kids find the volumes of "Name Nato Kitsu-chan" that they're looking for." Pointing, the green haired medical-intern went back to his newspaper articles.

Luffy laughed off the remark and left the intern there; picking up children's books on his way back to his station. Zoro went back to his work, reading through the articles a few more times before another voice interrupted his thought process.

"Well don't you look like you're hard at work...", Zoro opened his mouth to tell the person to go away, thinking that it was Luffy again, but it wasn't, it was Nami.

"Oh, hi...", she giggled a little as she came around the station to stand beside Zoro.

"What? Didn't want visitors?", it was then that she caught a glimpse of the article that he was looking up, "Hm? What's this?"

"Just doing some background work on my patient." Zoro shrugged, taking a sip of water from the cup he had. "I figured that it would be a good way to figure out how to work with him ... too bad the majority of it is just damn depressing."

If it weren't for the fact that they were in a public place, he would have been smoking a cigarette, but if he so much as pulled out an empty box, the matron would glare at him. He knew this because he'd nearly gotten kicked out of the library for doing just that, and if Luffy hadn't intervened, he would have probably smacked the woman senseless before showing her it was empty.

"What about you? What're you doing down here?" Zoro asked, looking over the current article he had in his hand.

Nami shrugged.

"Just filing some of the older hospital wing records, Chopper has the nurses do it once a month so that our own records office isn't too cluttered, files over six months old or of deceased patients get put in the section for our records down here while files over 10 years old get put into storage." She peeked over Zoro's shoulder then, "did you find anything interesting on patient 109?"

"Yeah, and none of it real heartwarming." Zoro muttered darkly, rubbing his forehead. "The guy wasn't always like this, you know?" looking over the article that spoke about what had happened to the Akira guy, the green haired intern began shaking his head. "there were very good chances that he wouldn't have even ended up here, had one thing not gone wrong in his life."

Nami placed a hand on Zoro's shoulder and squeezed it gently.

"Sometimes that's all it takes...", she said softly before giving him a smile, "I better get back to work, good luck with your research..." Zoro nodded and away she walked before he returned to the article.

Zoro looked up at the clock, sighing heavily; he had to get down to the institute. Standing, he went to replace the articles in their section of the archives. Leaving, he waved goodbye to Luffy -- who was currently reading to a group of preschoolers -- and walked down the road towards the bus stop.

Sanji's room was the same as normal when Zoro entered it, the blond sitting on his cot. "Hey." Zoro called, not knowing how else to greet Sanji after reading what he had.

Nothing was said, nothing had to be said; Sanji looked at Zoro in a way that said he knew he'd done something wrong but it wasnt like he could control the voice, he couldn't control the eyes; he couldn't control anything. Usually it didn't bother him, he didn't care if he stabbed or bit or kicked or maimed someone, he really didn't but for some reason he felt uneasy about Zoro seeing him like that.

It didn't make sense anymore, nothing made sense anymore, he couldn't see faces anymore, couldn't remember them as anything other than shadows. He saw Zoro and Zoro's face would take the place of Akira's becuase Sanji couldn't remember. Oh but he tried to, he would sit for hours and hours holding his head and trying to remember when Zoro wasn't there but nothing came. Nothing ever came anymore. He wasn't even sure he could remember why he was here in the first place, he couldn't recall what he'd told Zoro and what he hadn't.

To feel like a stranger in your own body, it was maddening; maybe it was a good thing that he was here after all.

His drugs were changed, the mouth and eyes went away, at least for a little while. He would sit in his usual spot, even when Zoro came in to talk to him, today they were due for a therapy session. Did Sanji want to go? Not really. Did he have a choice? Not really.

Zoro knelt in front of the blond and shook his knee, knowing that the stillness was a bad thing. "Hey, Sanji, you alright?" It was a stupid question, Zoro knew it was stupid, but seeing Sanji like this made him feel bad for reasons he didn't fully understand, and he wanted to help. He really wanted to help the blond get out of the place he was in, wanted to get him back to the life he used to have.

"You up to talking today? We don't have to leave the room, if you don't want."

Sanji jumped at the sound of the intern's voice, as though he hadn't known that he was there.

"What?", he asked, Zoro repeated himself and he looked at the hand on his knee before pushing himself up and walking to the door. He didn't say anything and that scared Zoro more than the stillness, Sanji was never silent. Was this some effect of the new medication?

But it wasn't the medication, Sanj had just lost himself in his memories. He was home and Akira was making him breakfast as he always did as they got ready for work or in Akira's case school; Sanji had been a chef at a local restaurant. He still coudln't remember his face but he leaned down and kissed him gently and Sanji smiled as they made idle chatter. Akira had been going for his degree in engineering, Sanji had been working so that he could get through school.

_"I made your favorite"_ he heard the memory say; Akira always made his favorite.

The sudden feel of the all too familiar manacles that were used to detain him being slapped around his wrists jerked him out of his thoughts and all of a sudden he was back at the mental ward and Zoro was leading him out of the room.

"Let's talk about Akira ..." Zoro whispered quietly, his hand gentle as it gripped Sanji's elbow. Feeling the patient stiffen, he gave the elbow a squeeze. "I know it hurts, but it's probably best you talk about it." He didn't know how else to begin to crack through Sanji's personality, apart from going with what he knew.

Briefly wondering how much of Sanji's past Zeff had bothered to look into, Zoro guided the blond into the room, and had him sit in the chair before settling himself, trying to get comfortable as he waited for Sanji to begin.

"No" Sanji said lightly as he sat down, the guards strapping him securely into the chair and the chair securely to the floor. He didn't want to talk about him, he couldn't talk about him; he couldn't remember, wouldn't remember, there was no face, that person was gone and they weren't coming back.

Zoro sighed heavily; he should have known that he would have to fight with Sanji to get this part of the treatment to work. "I know that it hurts, Sanji ... but it really would be best." He began, wondering how long it would take, his stubborn streak rearing its ugly head to see this part of it all through.

Sanji's expression didn't change and neither did his answer.

"No."

Zoro began to growl, and he stood up. "Listen, I'm not in the mood to deal with stonewalling." He stated, voice flat and beginning to gain a note of frustration. "I am not one of those people who will just let this go, and leave you to rot in some unknown cell, alone and madder than a hatter."

He wasnt?

"Oh you're not are you? You really want to know who Akira was?" Sanji glared; who was Akira? Who was he? He was everything and yet nothing at all. "I don't know who he was! I don't know anything anymore..." It was like a messed up jigsaw puzzle that he just couldn't put back together, he didn't remember his face, but he remembered his voice, he didn't remember his hair or his eyes, but he remembered the feel of him when he wrapped him up in a hug.

The blonde shook his head "I try to think of him and you take his place, no matter how hard I try...I don't know who he is, or who he was...or anything..."

Zoro didn't know how to respond at first, but he reached into his pocket to feel the piece of the article that he had kept. It would be a risk, he knew it would be, but it would be worth it if he managed to get Sanji to open up a bit. Pulling out the thin scrap of paper, Zoro looked at it again before glancing at Sanji. "... Would seeing a picture of him help you remember?" He asked quietly, and before the patient could respond, placed the piece of the article in his hands and backed away a step.

Sanji stared at the picture that had been placed in his hands, it was of an average looking man with a thin nose and kind eyes, he had an almost angular face but it wasn't quite and shaggy dark hair that the black and white of the picture failed to tell was brown. It was like a door opened and the blonde could remember everything, the good and the bad.

He started with the good.

"We met at the pier, I was shopping for a uniform to wear to my new job as a waiter, he was working his way through his last year of lower schooling", a gasping laugh escaped Sanji. "When I saw him, I was so sure he was an angel; that is until he tripped and dumped a crate of fish on me. He apologized like there was no tomorrow and even though I would have otherwise got mad, I just couldn't when I saw the look on his face. I just laughed." A slow tear trailed down his cheek, "I was with him for 5 years, until his last year of College, he would have been an engineer; it was his dream. I remember I worked so hard just so he could have that dream, I loved him more than he ever knew..."

He stopped then, feeling his heart come up to his throat as he clutched the picture before him.

Zoro sat back down, listening quietly to the entire thing, smiling when he heard about how Sanji and Akira had met; he could just picture it happening, as if he'd witnessed it himself. He could tell just by looking that Sanji really had cared for Akira, and it made Zoro feel all the worse that Sanji hadn't been able to remember him until now.

"And ...?" He asked quietly, reaching forward and placing a hand on Sanji's knee again.

"We'd gone out to dinner that night", Sanji said softly, his emotion held back; it was time for the bad. "To celebrate his graduation..."

The streets were rainy as they got ready to leave the restaurant, it was more expensive than they could afford but Sanji had told himself multiple times taht they would make ends meet somehow becuase tonight was a special night.

"You forgot the umbrella at home again, didn't you?", Akira asked as he came up behind the blonde, handing off the coat that he'd been retrieving before putting his own on.

"I didn't think we'd need it", Akira shook his head at the answer and asked the matridee if they had a spare that he could buy. Sanji only smiled.

"So do you think it's going to rain tomorrow too?", Akira asked as he held the umbrella aloft over both of their heads, "Because Luffy was coming to visit..."

"I don't think so, I thought that you and your familiy weren't on good speaking terms, that's why you changed your name, isn't it?", Akira smiled and nodded.

"A little brother is different though...", he said lightly; Sanji was going to say something but didn't get the chance, a man lunged out of the alley that they were passing. Akira saw him, he must have, because he pushed Sanji behind him.

It was over in an instant but as he watched his lover fall to the ground that instant seemed to stretch on into an eternity.

"Akira...?", he spoke the man's name like a question, "Akira?" His lover didn't move and when he reached for him the police grabbed him and held him back. "Akira?" Their arms seemed like hard steel bars that wrapped along his chest, crushing his ribs and aching like nothing else. He wanted to get to his lover but they wouldn't let him; frantic pulling and pushing, he needed to touch him because this couldn't be real. "Akira!"

This couldn't be real....

And to Sanji...it wasn't...

"I didn't get to go to the funeral", Sanji said softly with a shocking lack of emotion, his parents and his little brother went but I couldn't face them. His brother knew who I was, we never met though; his parents had told Akira before that I was ruining him, they didn't know I was on the other phone listening...I don't think Akira even knew then..."

Zoro sat there, stunned into silence. That was just ... wow ... "My God ..." He eventually muttered to himself, and after a moments worth of thought, he got up, walked over to Sanji, and hugged the blond for all he was worth. "I ... I'm sorry ..." He whispered, not certain of what else to say.

... Wait ... he said that Akira had a little brother ... Could he find said little brother and try to talk with him about what all had happened?

Sanji said nothing, he just clutched the picture tighter, feeling Zoro's arms come around as him as he pushed away any emotions that were trying to surge to the surface.

"May I go back to my cell?", he asked in a raspy voice, willing it not to crack, he couldn't wouldn't; the good doctor was behind that mirror on the wall, he wouldn't give him the satisfaction of crying in front of him. The good doctor had never pushed about Sanji's past, after the first couple weeks of therapy he stopped even mentioning it because Sanji's answer was always the same.

He'd never heard the patient's voice sound like that before. Letting go of Sanji, Zoro nodded and stood up and away, waiting for the patient to stand up before leading him back to the cell. "You can keep the picture if you want."

Zoro already knew what he had to do ... he had to track down Akira's little brother and talk with him, maybe he knew something as well. But for now, what mattered the most was getting Sanji back to his cell before the blond broke down and cried.

Zeff had been watching and listening, his face unreadable as he watched the two leave. 'So, that was his deal, eh?' The head doctor thought to himself. All he had heard about from the police on the scene was that Sanji had killed someone, and that several months before, he'd watched his lover get killed. 'Those idiots didn't even bother to try and connect the two, did they?'

It added a whole new layer to Sanji's problems, though, and Zeff doubted that anyone would ever be able to dig through enough of that madman's mind to get it out. The best bet anyone had was Zoro. 'Heh, no pressure, kid.'

Sanji fell like a dead tree to the welcoming surface of his cot, curling up and staring silently at the wall. He didn't want to talk, he didn't want to hurt; he closed his eyes and watched the eyes and mouth silently. The mouth said nothing, the eyes closed and before long Sanji had sunken into the abyss of his thoughts, soon succumbing to a sort of half sleep with his eyes glazed over and staring at the unforgiving gray of the wall. He stayed that way for hours, the silence of his cell surrounding him; he was still there when the door opened and Zeff came in.

He didn't move, no smart remarks left his lips, he acted as though the old doctor wasn't there.

"Sanji", the old man's rough voice shook the blond from his thoughts but he didn't move.

"Good doctor", he said with as much animosity and sarcasm as he could muster; he heard the old man shift a little.

"Why did you tell him?", he asked, "Why did you tell him when you never told me?" The patient almost laughed; that was what this was about, the gold star on his record; the old man was angry that he'd cracked for Zoro and not for him. Very slowly he stood up, putting the picture down and pushing his hair out of his face as he towered over the old man; a cruel grin on his face.

"You want to know why~?", he purred in a taunting voice; the blow was instant, rearing back he jammed his knee hard into the old man's stomach before spinning and kicking him across the face, sending him sprawling and splitting his brow so that it bled. "You want to know?" Spinning around again he kicked him across the face so that he hit the floor, pinning him down by the throat with one hand, one knee on Zeff's stomach and the other on his arm, the other arm being held down by Sanji's free hand. "Because I HATE you! You're nothing, you're a toy!" He grinned almost evilly, "you have no feelings, your blood is fake! AND I HATE YOU!"

Zeff flailed and kicked, trying to get the patient off of him but his rather large stomach and Sanji's knee made that difficult.

"I should kill you~", the blond said with a grin, "Would you like that? It would go on your record~ Think of all the people that will feel sorry for you~", he gave an evil smile and lunged so that the old doctor flinched.

Back at his small apartment, Zoro felt a cold shudder go down his back as he took a bite out of the leftover pizza he was eating. 'Why do I feel like something horrible is going to happen soon?' He asked himself, looking around. When his eyes settled on his jacket, he swore when he realized that he'd accidentally left Sanji's medicine bottle in his jacket pocket.

"Guess I'll have to run it back." He muttered, grabbing his coat and leaving the apartment at a fast walk. He hadn't gotten far when his phone rang, and Nami's voice came on over the phone.

"Get your ass down here! 109 is acting up again!" She shouted, making Zoro swear as he stored his phone away and broke into a dead run, hoping that he would make it back to the institiute before Sanji ended up killing someone again.

Sanji cackled as the hands grabbed his shoulders, trying with all their might to drag him away from the old doctor. He let them a little bit, kicking the man hard in the side and legs as they pulled him away. His feet slid along the cool tile and he grinned, but then they were pulling him too far away, he couldn't kick him and Sanji wouldn't tolerate that.

Turning his head, he bit down on one of the hands at his shoulders and wheeled to kick the other hard in the gut when the first pulled away and swore.

"Thought you wanted to die~?", he crowed, racing at Zeff again before more hands caught him, "It's just like you, all about your record, all about what you want..." Kicking one of the nurses in the shins, grabbing the sedative that they'd gotten out to put him down with before pumping it into the system of the nurse that he hadn't kicked.

Zeff was getting up off the floor, holding the ribs that the blonde had probably broken; he looked ready to fight. Turning and pushing the body of the unconscious nurse into the other nurses that were coming towards him, Sanji grinned at the old man who was bravely standing before him. Then he lunged.

Zoro burst through the institution door in time to see Sanji kick one nurse and sedate the other. Standing there stunned for a heartbeat, he lunged when Sanji did, hitting the blond patient in the small of the back. It wasn't enough to knock him over, but at least he had been briefly derailed from his target. "Sanji, NO!" he shouted, and eventually did tackle the blond when he lunged again, knocking him to the floor.

"What the hell is going on!" He demanded of the blond beneath him, holding onto him with his arms around his waist as the other tried to squirm away.

Sanji wriggled and clawed to get away, wanting desperately to mame the old doctor but only could watch as he got up and left. Holding his ribs; at least the patient had done some form of damage.

When he was gone the blond stilled, laying with his cheek against the cool tile floor, vaguely aware that Zoro was still anchored to him.

Not letting go of Sanji until the last nurse had left the office, Zoro continued to sit on top of the patient, unaware that the position he had used to subdue the madman was ... awkward to look at from behind. "Are you calm now?" Zoro panted once everyone had left, slowly letting go of Sanji as his cramped arms began to twinge from being in one position for so long.

Sanji didn't answer him.

"He'll have something to talk about around the water cooler now", he mumbled before slowly pushing himself up and sitting in his usual spot between the bed and the toilet. "He deserved it..."

Rubbing his arms to get the circulation in them going again, the intern shot Sanji a stern look. "That doesn't mean you can get away with that." He stated. "For all either of us know, they might just decide to lock you up for good the next time you do that and I'm not around."

It had been something Zoro had noticed frequently as the weeks went by; he was some sort of tranquilizer for the blond, no matter how unnerving the thought could be.

Sanji said nothing to the effect of the young man's words; instead he traced his fingers along the grout lines before getting onto his hands and knees. Crawling across the floor to the intern, he grinned at the green haired male when he reached him. With cold hands, he reached and gently held Zoro's face, knowing that he probably expected abuse by now because he flinched.

The patient watched him flinch and grinned; running his fingers through that scruff that Zoro called his hair. It was surprisingly soft, it looked wirey and stiff but it wasn't.

Sitting the way he was on the floor, Zoro couldn't move as Sanji's fingers threaded through his hair. "Can I ... help you with something?" He asked, remembering what Sanji had been doing to him before his first panic attack over Akira. Again, he felt warmer than normal as the blond settled over him, fingers still tangled in his hair. "Sanji?"

The patient didn't seem to hear him as he fixated his attention on the man's hair; his fingertips tracing patterns down the man's neck. He could feel the muscles and tendons flexing beneath his touch; he swallowed and almost laughed in giddy surprise as the intern didn't push him away.

"Trust me", he whispered.

_Trust me, put all your faith in me and let me show you that I wont let you down..._

Letting his fingers wander down the man's chest, he wrenched away suddenly at the sound of one of the doors down the hall closing. The intercom button must've been sticking again, because his room was no longer sound proof all the time. When he'd waited and was sure that no one was going to catch him, he returned to his touching.

His touch was light, he traced patterns down the intern's arms, noting that they were all muscle and cracking a smile as he realized that this fact was probably somewhat due to his need to be restrained so often.

Zoro hissed and shivered under the touch, not fully liking the fact that his body warmed beneath Sanji's touch. Getting romantically involved with a patient was a very suicidal way to leave the profession ... Sitting still, he registered Sanji's two words only vaguely as he began to relax under the teasing touch.

The door closing snapped his attention to it, and he felt a cold wave of fear run through him. 'I should probably be leaving now ...' He thought to himself, listening to the silence as it returned. However, the thought left him in a rush when Sanji started touching again, making Zoro begin to melt. A weak moan left his mouth and he slowly fell backwards to the tiled floor.

Sanji grinned at the sight of Zoro laying down on the cool tile; he pulled his fingers away and laid down beside the intern, watching him intently.

"Do you have a family?", he asked curiously.

"None that I talk to regularly. Why?" Zoro asked after a moment, letting the cold tile numb his back.

The blond said nothing in return to the question, instead he just watched Zoro silently.

"I wish I had a family...", he said after a long silence; "a word of advice? Don't become an orphan..."

_Become? How did one BECOME an orphan?_

He said it like it was a choice, of course he did, it had been a choice for him...

Zoro didn't respnod, but stared at the ceiling blankly, the results of a long, stressful day. "mmhm, I'll keep that in mind ..." He replied after a good long while, yawning. Sitting up, he sighed. "Are you going to behave now? I'd like to go home."

Sanji just smirked.

"If I say no, will you stay with me all night?"

"I don't think the security guards would let that happen." Zoro laughed weakly, not really wanting to entertain the thought of spending the evening in a cell with Sanji.

Not that he had flat out refused ...

The blond seemed to contemplate the answer for a moment, using the time as an excuse to take in the intern's features and grinning.

"Give me a kiss and I'll be good~", he stated wickedly, silently telling the intern that it wasn't really a request.

Zoro stared at Sanji for a good long while, chewing on his lower lip. A part of his mind was panicking over the statement, but after looking to make certain that nobody was coming, he sighed and looked at Sanji.

"On the mouth?" He asked weakly, although he highly suspected that was what it was.

To Zoro's dismay the patient said nothing but grinned wider, making it clear that a kiss on the lips was _exactly_ what he wanted. He didn't know why but he didn't want the green haired male to just give in to him, he wanted him to fight him; make it as physical on his end as it was on Sanji's. So when he relented towards him, the mad man pulled away and stood to go to his cot.

"Should have stuck to your guns", he said lightly, repeating a line from one of their other encounters.

Zoro blinked and scowled, also standing up. "With someone as hard headed as you, perhaps I should have." He muttered, grabbing the blond's thin wrist. "Stand still so we can get this over with."

Sanji jumped at the intern's sudden aggressiveness, his eyes widening ever so slightly as a shiver of electricity snaked down his spine, He wanted him to pin him down, throw him against the wall, bend his arm backwards until it cracked so hard it threatened to break.

_Can you do that?_

Reaching up suddenly he threaded his free hand around Zoro's skull, cupping it in a firm grip.

_Hit me, hurt me, punish me for being bad...show me you love me enough to let me trust you not to hurt me too badly..._

Pulling him down by his hair, he kissed him darkly, making him stumble slightly to keep his balance. He could feel Zoro's grip strengthen on his wrist and he bit away a moan.

Not letting go of the thin wrist in his large hand, Zoro involuntarily responded to the dark kiss, pressing his weight against Sanji to try and force him back onto the bed. He didn't know why, but he liked this contact, now that he was actually somewhat complying to the interaction instead of being half molested.

Sanji felt a soft whimper escape him as he was forced back onto the bed; his body heating in a way it hadn't in a long time. His hand slowly unknotted from the intern's scruffy green mane and let it travel down. Pulling away he gave the man an evil grin, as his hand closed around the back of Zoro's upper thigh and forced him to press against him before kissing him again.

Zoro shuddered faintly at the hand on his thigh, instinctively opening his mouth a fraction to protest. Doing so, however, made his teeth graze against Sanji's lower lip, which was just inviting him to chew on it. The hand that wasn't holding down Sanji's wrist slipped up the patient's arm until it found the other thin wrist.

Gripping it tightly, he yanked on it so that he could hold both of Sanji's hands above his head, still keeping the blond's mouth occupied.

Sanji groaned and bucked up against the other man, feeling his hands hit the cool porcelain behind his head. Finally he tipped his head up, breaking the kiss and panting. The eyes were there, in his head, and the mouth was there, grinning and cruel.

Zeff limped his way angrily into the surveillance office, irritated about the encounter with Sanji and the fact that he'd had to have Chopper patch him up again. Zoro was like Novocain for patient 109 and that fact above all the others pissed him off; he didn't like it, he didn't want him to get the recognition that went with a patient like 109; not when it was he who deserved it for these past years of injury in the line of duty.

Mentally noting to yell at that damn security guard-what was his name...Usopp?-the head doctor turned to leave, glancing at Sanji's cell camera out of habit. The sight he saw made him stop and a glare came over his face; Zoro had Sanji pinned to the wall, sprawled over his cot and was kissing him.

Jamming his finger to the cut off button on Sanji's room he left and headed back down to the cell floor, and was there when Zoro came from Zanji's cell.

Zoro had known he was in over his head the moment the second kiss had broken, but he was completely okay with it. Staring down at Sanji as the blond panted for air, the intern felt a thrill go through him, but he knew that he was pushing his luck. "I have to go ..." Zoro mumbled, lifting up and standing.

Adjusting the coat he wore over his clothes, Zoro shook off the suspicious feeling that someone was watching him as he left the room. Stepping out of the doorway, it took a lot of self control for the green haired intern not to flinch when he saw a very angry Zeff approaching him. 'Great ... what's got him pissed off now? the fact that I don't get hurt working with Sanji?' Zoro wondered to himself, walking down the hallway as casual as he could manage.

Surprisingly the head doctor only stopped in his path briefly to talk to the intern; his voice was cold.

"Turn in your I.D. card, you're fired..." then he continued on his way towards Sanji's cell.

Zoro blinked, stunned and lost. "'You're fired ...'?" he mouthed, blinking. When it finally settled in, Zoro scowled greatly, glaring at Zeff's retreating back. 'Fine; don't blame me when Sanji kills you deader than dead.'

Turning around, he continued to walk towards the exit, shoving his hands in his pockets as they began to ball into fists.


	5. If He's Not Here

Sanji held his breath as he hid under the pool water's surface, he was holding onto the tiles of the sides desperately to keep himself submurged as the guards searched the room. It had been a week; one very long week since he'd stopped taking his meds, one week since he'd started feeling like a stranger in his own skin and one week long eternity since he'd been told that Zoro was no longer his doctor.

He could still picture that angrilly smug look on the good doctor's face when he'd told him, as though he'd won some covetted prize that they'd all been looking at. It was an 'I've got you' look.

When the lights faded, he raced for the surface, taking in a large inhale of breath and fighting away the urge to cough before pushing himself out of the pool. This was his fifth escape attempt in just one week and he wasn't going to let them catch him this time. He wouldn't stay here anymore, not if Zoro wasn't here. Before the intern had come into his life he'd thought this place his playground; now it was just a void building filled with inane faculty members.

"You haven't found him yet?" Zeff's roaring bellow could have been heard outside the institute, Nami thought to herself. It had been one hectic week ever since Zoro had been released - why he had been, Zeff hadn't disclosed - as Sanji had shown his utter rejection to his doctor being released in the most natural way possible; raising hell.

'It's only a matter of time before he does break out of here.' Nami thought to herself, shaking her head as she tended to a couple of the other patients in the infirmary. Both were nurses, ones that Sanji had violently attacked when they came to retrain him and take him back to his room.

It was natural she supposed, considering how much progress Zoro had been making with the patient and how 109 had taken to the green haired intern so well. Wasn't it natural that he would oppose the discharge of his caretaker?

The sirens were raised as Zeff thromped about yelling, his mood having darkened in tandom with Sanji's rebellion. The more hell that the patient raised, the angrier that Zeff got. It was rather like a father watching his child throw a tantrum in public; he was embarrassed, though of what she had no idea.

Sanji held his head briefly as the sirens started, they hurt his ears and it took a moment to block them out before he climbed onto the diving board above the olympic pool. He jumped as though he would dive, one...two...three times before putting his all into the fourth leap and grabbing one of the pipes that lined the rafters and ceiling. From there it was a matter of getting to the steamed over window that led to the roof.

Zeff stomped around, finally coming to the room where Sanji usually hid when the sirens went off; the pool. Despite the two nurses behind him protesting and saying that they'd already searched in the room for Patient 109, Zeff knew that the blond would try any way he could to get out.

The humid room smelt very strongly of chlorine, masking any other smell that might give away Sanji's position. Zeff tottered over to the locker where they held swim masks, flippers, water wings, and other water toys for the patients and ripped the door open; no Sanji.

Sanji held very still as the double doors below him opened, his heart leaping into his throat though he willed himself to be silent. Zeff entered, leaving two nurses with their flashlights in the hallway as he paced a few steps into the room and scanned it with his eyes. One might have thought that he would have wisened up by now, Sanji didn't give away his hiding place with stupid mistakes.

The good doctor paced across the room, his footsteps echoing in the open space and wrenched open the cabnet door, giving Sanji enough noise to move closer to the window without drawing attention to himself.

Zeff swore and it was then that both he and Sanji noticed the ever so slight movement of the diving board; it was residual of Sanji's jump and presented the possibility that he could have dove into the pool to hide from the nurses.

Tottering over to the pool, Zeff looked down into the water to look for the blond patient. "The moment he gets back in his cell I am locking it and shoving his pills in the room through a doggy door." He growled, peering into the water to try and find Sanji. When it became apparent that he wasn't in the water, the head doctor swore loudly, using the most colorful language either of the nurses had ever heard in their lives.

"What the hell did he do? Go down the drain!"

Sanji bit away a laugh as he slid through the window that he'd carefully pryed open as the doctor had been preoccupied with the pool and closed said window behind him. He was home free and now all he had to do was find Zoro.

Back at his small apartment, Zoro woke up to the blaring alarm clock, only to smash the hapless device into metal shards before rolling back over onto his side and falling asleep once again. In the week since he had been let go from the institute, he'd tried to find himself another job, but so far, he'd gotten no word back.

So, for now, he was taking the opportunity to sleep in. Briefly wondering what Sanji was doing at the moment, and how the blond was fairing without him. 'I wonder how many of those nurses have resigned now ...' He pondered.

He hadn't had much luck finding Sanji's family or IDing Akira's little brother either, for that matter. 'I guess Karma just doesn't want me to find out about him ...' Zoro thought briefly before falling asleep again, fist lifting to smash the alarm clock as it rang once more, albeit much softer than before.

Luffy was an innocent soul, perhaps a little naive but one had to be to work where he did; it was a hospital library, shared by the mental hospital as well as the medical hospital and ER to store their records. He read to children in between bouts of organizing the records in chronological order and was in the end a little childish despite the loss of his brother. So he thought nothing of it when he paced across the dark parking lot and got into the car that had once been his brother's before he'd left for college.

Portgas-or Ace as he'd liked to be called-had been studying to become an engineer, living with his lover much to his parent's dismay. He'd said that he'd have had no use for the car in the city where he was going and it seemed true. But sometimes he wondered if-perhaps-if he'd had the car the night that he'd died, would it have made a difference? Or would Ace have decided to walk home anyway?

This had seemed easy at first...but it wasn't anymore...

"He doesn't love you" the mouth cackled as Sanji tripped down the street, more than once running into another person and veering away, holding his head. "He left you…" Had he left him? Or had he not? He couldn't remember now…or was it that he hadn't been told? Keeping his eyes on what he could see of the pavement in the ever dimming sunset light, he concentrated on it, willing his legs to keep walking forward.

Waking up from a sudden cold shiver going down his back, Zoro sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes. "Where did that come from ...?" He wondered, confused, and was alarmed when his phone rang. Not expecting any calls, he got up and picked it up. "Yes?"

"Good, you're home."

"Nami?" Zoro asked, stunned; nobody from the hospital had tried to contact him at all in the past week.

"No, it's the Lady of the Lake." Nami replied curtly, glancing around the area where she had hidden to contact Zoro once it had been made obvious that Sanji had gotten out of the hospital. "Yes, it's me. Zoro, Sanji got out of the ward; I bet he's looking for you."

Zoro blinked, stunned, and then swore loudly as the reality set in. "I'll call you the moment I find him."

"Good; Zeff is acting like a grumpy bear on PMS."

The police weren't sure what to do with the blonde man as he sat there in their interrogation room, holding his head and sitting in the corner of the room. No matter what anyone said to him he only said one thing back. 'Zoro'. A few of them were debating on what it meant, none of them really knew. They didn't even know who the man was until a fax came in stating that a mental patient from a local mental institution; then they knew.

Sanji sat in the corner of the little room that he had been put in, it was no bigger than his cell and a table was in the middle of it taking up much of the space like his bed and toilet did. He'd wedged himself as far into the little space as he could, determined to stay as far away from these new threats in his life as possible. The eyes and mouth were there of course and he'd made a game of seeing how long he could keep his eyes open until it hurt too much not to close them.

_Zoro...where's Zoro..._

Nami was still hiding under her secretary desk when the phone rang. Popping up quickly, she grabbed the phone and hid under her desk again. "Yes, you have reached the Merry Go Mental Illness Institute, how may I help you?" She asked politely, keeping her voice as quiet as possible as Zeff stomped past her desk again, still roaring that they had better find Patient 109 and fast.

"Yes, this is the local police department." The man on the other side of the line said. "We received a fax about a missing patient, and we believed that we have him here at the station. He's blond, tall and thin, and doesn't respond sensically to anything anyone says to him."

"Oh good, you found him; I'll let his doctor know immediately." Nami stated, mentally grinning when she knew how happy Sanji was going to be to see Zoro again. "Thank you for informing me, officer." Before the man could ask her anything else, she punched the button that rested on the phone's cradle before dialing Zoro's number as fast as she could.

"Hey, Jolly Green Giant," she teased as he picked up the other end of the phone. "We found your blond schizo, if you want to pick him up."

The officer greeted Zoro curiously as he came hurrying into the station, almost panicked.

"Can I help you, son?"

Zoro looked around the station nervously, having had bad experiences with the cops when he was much younger. "Yeah, I heard that you managed to pick up my patient." He stated weakly, walking through the hallways in front of the officer. When the man nodded and stepped in front of him to guide him to the room.

Seeing Sanji curled up in the corner of the room, Zoro pushed the door open as soon as he got the okay from the officer. "Sanji?" He called quietly, wondering how long it had been since the patient had had his meds.

Sanji looked up as the door opened, shaking, his mind telling them that everyone here was conspiring against him. Zoro was in the doorway, he stood there looking just like he had the last time that the blonde had seen him and a brief surge of excitement ran through the mental patient before the mouth grinned and whispered to him.

"It's a trick" it said, "he's not really your doctor~" this stopped Sanji in any advancement he might have made towards the green haired man. Very slowly pushing himself up the wall, he glared at the intern.

"FAKE!" he screamed, grabbing one of the chairs that were around the table and throwing it at the intern who managed to dodge it.

Zoro dodged the chair, closing the door to keep the police man from following into the room. 'I guess that answers my question about the meds.' He thought to himself, running up so that he could pin Sanji's hands to either side of his head. "Calm down, will you? It's me!"

"You're not taking me!" Sanji screamed at Zoro's face, "I have to find him, I wont go back until I do!" Kicking the intern hard in the stomach he pushed him into a pile to the side and raced around the table.

Groaning, Zoro clutched his stomach as Sanji raced around to the other side of the room, making a mental note to call Nami and ask her if she could get him Sanji's meds the instant he got a phone in his hands. "You little ..." He growled, rubbing his stomach as he stood up. The police officer was pounding on the door, obviously worried about the commotion going on inside the room.

Not wanting Sanji to try to get away again, the green haired intern launched himself at Sanji and pinned him against the wall. "You raving ... Sanji, it's me!"

The blonde squirmed, trying to get away, trying to find some way to hurt this false creature for impersonating Zoro.

"No!", he yelled, "No! No! NO!" he wasn't raving, this was real, why didn't they understand that he could see through their lies. He could see this being for what it was, it was just like the good doctor; a fake person sent to torture him.

Finding no other way out, he smashed his head against the fake Zoro's head and knocked him back, snaking around the table once more.

Holding his head where Sanji had headbutted him, Zoro growled and stared at the patient for a good long moment. 'Damn he gets really violent when he hasn't had his meds in about a week.' He thought to himself, pondering the best way to get it through Sanji's head that it was him. Only one way came to mind, and it made him groan heavily. 'I've got no other choice though ....'

"Hey, calm down!" He finally shouted, tackling Sanji so that they were hidden behind the heavy door. When he had the hysterical patient pinned against eh wall once more, he forced his mouth onto Sanji's, praying that he wouldn't get bitten.

Sanji immediately froze, the mouth against his stopping any movement that he would have made out of shock for a brief moment. After a moment, he pushed the man away, pressed his foot to Zoro's chest and pushed him further, sitting there and wiping his mouth silently, watching him trying to consider whether or not this was really him.

Holding his head with one hand he kept rubbing his mouth, he was so confused, puzzle pieces that didn't fit were trying to mash together and when his mind tried to fix them they rebelled. Nothing made sense right now. The eyes and mouth were both laughing at him, mocking him, they found it funny and they wouldn't leave.

Relieved that he had at least gotten Sanji calmed down, Zoro sighed. "Come on, let's get you to my place; hopefully Nami will come by with your meds soon."

"It seems I have good timing." Nami commented from the doorway, Sanji's pill bottle in one hand. Seeing the shocked look Zoro was giving her, the orange-haired secretary shrugged. "It's my lunch break, so I figured I would swing over and give you a little help." She stated, handing Zoro the pills. "Calm blondie down, will you?"

Zoro gave her a dry look, and then cautiously approached Sanji again, the pills in one hand. "Alright, lets see if this works ..."

Sanji's mind registered the sight before him before something snapped into place, some part of his rational mind, registered that it was Zoro that was giving him his meds now. Whether he thought he needed them or not was beside the point, if it was Zoro, then he was going to take them. Reaching, he took the dose from Zoro's hand almost before he managed to get it out of the bottle, put the handfull of pills into his mouth and swallowed them.

He sat there for a long time after the pills had gone down and very slowly puzzle pieces started fitting together, the mouth and eyes didn't leave but they silenced and he knew that it was the real Zoro crouching before him; not a fake. At some point Nami left, her respite had been brief as her lunch hour was over and she had to get back to the hospital.

Zoro waited for Sanji to calm down for a moment, a smile eventually coming onto his face. "You feeling more like yourself now, Sanji? I think you gave me a bump on the head that I'll have for a while." He commented, rubbing the spot where Sanji's thick skull had met his forehead.

The blonde didn't even hear his words. Vaulting at the intern, he wrapped his arms around his middle and burried his face into his chest.

"You left me...", he whimpered.

Zoro blinked at the affection, but wrapped his arms around Sanji after a moment as well. "Yeah, I know, I'm sorry." he replied, resisting the urge to rub Sanji's head. "Come on, let's go back to the hospital, and I'll talk to the person who writes the Geezer's paycheck about me possibly staying there."

Standing up, the green haired intern pulled Sanji up with him. "I promise, I didn't want to leave, but the Old Geezer told me not to come back, and I personally don't want to make him angry. ... Well, angrier than he already is."

Sanji pulled back slowly.

"I have to go back to the hospital...don't I?", he watched as Zoro nodded slowly, a look of nervous regret on his face. Leaning in he pulled him behind the door a little and kissed him gently; an ominous look in his eyes as he grinned, pulling away. "Fine...But you have to force me~" his voice dropped to a whisper that Zoro could hear but no one else would even if they were listening on the other side of that mirror. "Make it fun."

He shifted slightly, giving a silent warning to the intern before he kneed towards his stomach.

Zoro grinned, having expecting that he would need to play rough. Gripping Sanji's knee, Zoro flipped the blond onto his side and pinned him there for a good long minute. "I took kendo in high school, just so you know." He commented idily, as if this were just another day in the institute for them.

Sanji smirked and kicked from the other side, catching the intern off guard.

"Then you should be good at this..." Zoro needed to incapacitate him, needed to show that he wasn't afraid of him. Sanji knew why Zoro had been fired, or at least he had something of a theory. The good doctor wanted him out of the picture, he wanted Zoro to fail at doing what he had been trying to do since the day that Sanji had arrived.

_Why had he even given him to him? Had he just been trying to run him into the ground?_

Wincing as the kick hit his knee, Zoro grinned again and went to grasp Sanji's wrists with one hand while the rest of his body went to pin down the blond's legs. "Heh, I have a feeling that I'm going to get more practice with it as it is." He responded, knowing that this was probably nothing more than a game to Sanji, but he was still eager to play it.

'When did I decide to follow his rules?'

Sanji squirmed and rolled, though that only managed to get him pinned with his face against the floor.

"Touché he mumbled before letting the intern pull him up and get him to standing without too much of a fight. The police officers who'd brought him in were outside the door when Zoro opened it, probably thinking that they were going to help the intern; maybe they thought that he was in real danger.

But as rough as Sanji was, he would never have seriously hurt the other male, bang him up and bruise him yes; make him bleed a little perhaps but never seriously injure him. Grinning at them maniacally, he let the intern hold his wrists behind his back and urge him the way that they needed to go with a hand to his back.

Luffy parked his car in the mental hospital parking lot and got out; he was here to pick up a family friend that was staying with them, the curator, Shanks. Shanks had called him on his way home and had said that his car had broken down, but the man could fix that well enough so there must've been another reason for wanting him here; thus Luffy hadn't denied the request or written it off as just a mind game.

Shanks had been the one to keep their family together when Ace had left, when he'd dyed his hair and changed his name just to defy their parents.

Zoro had managed to get Sanji back to the hospital in one piece after assuring the officers that it was okay, and was now sitting in the office waiting for Shanks to re-enter the office. After sneaking Sanji into that part of the hospital, he had explained everything to the one-armed redhead, and was now waiting for the verdict that would eventually come.

Looking over to Sanji, Zoro reached out and squeezed his hand. "Hey, hopefully this guy will get it all sorted out." He said softly, knowing that Sanji was probably every bit as nervous as he was; they were, after all, in the hospital curator's office.

Sanji said nothing, keeping his eyes intently focused on the door that the one armed man had vanished through.

"There's someone in my office that I want you to meet…" he'd known that there had been another reason for him being here than just to give the man a ride home as Luffy listened to Shanks' statement and fought away the outburst of "HAH!" or "I TOLD YOU SO!".

"Who is he?" he asked lightly; Shanks looked at him lightly for a moment before turning towards the door.

"Your brother's lover…"

Luffy gave Shanks a good long look, nervous. He had never met Ace's boyfriend before, the only chance he had gotten had been the funeral, which the man had never shown up for. Not that Luffy could blame the guy, his parents had been horrible about the entire relationship.

When Shanks opened the door to his office and stepped in, Luffy behind him, the younger boy blinked at the sight of Zoro, who sat there in a pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt beneath his jacket. But it was the blond who sat next to him, looking nervous about something, that made Luffy stare the most.

Sanji's eyes turned up when the door opened and when Shanks moved from the doorway, they locked on the young man behind him and stayed there. He looked like Akira, not exactly alike but they were related somehow, that much he knew. Their eyes met and didn't look away from one another until Shanks said something; the blonde hadn't heard what he'd said though, only the sound of his voice. Obviously this was evident because the red head repeated his question.

"Sanji, do you know who this is?" he shook his head; still watching the young man with such intent; he was trying to figure it out before the curator told him.

Zoro watched the introduction with a feeling of nervousness in his gut. He hadn't even thought that _Luffy_ would have been the younger brother; the black haired boy hadn't given any indication of having an older brother before ... 'Oh dear, why does it feel like the shit is going to hit the fan now?' Zoro swallowed the lump in his throat, praying that Sanji didn't overreact.

Shanks seemed to notice this, because he took a deep breath. "Sanji, this is Luffy ... Akira's little brother."

Sanji stared at the boy before him as he very slowly stood; this boy was Akira's younger brother? This was Luffy? He was the boy that Akira had adored, the little brother that-even while fighting with their parents-his lover had gone through such pains to visit.

The look on the black haired boy's face was one between shock and pain; he was a reminder, he was what remained of the boy's older brother. He stepped closer to the younger male.

Opening his mouth, the mouth spoke first in his mind and one hand came up to press to his temple.

"You really don't think he'll forgive you, do you? A sinner like you? Akira died because of you..." the blonde shook his head and tried not to listen but no matter what he could still hear the next statement. "He's dead Sanji...and it's all your fault..."

Pulling away from the younger boy, he shook his head, trying desperately to make the mouth go away; the eyes were watching him, always watching, and always siding with the mouth.

Zoro felt his alarms go off. "Dammit, the meds wore off already ..." He thought to himself, going to grab at Sanji's arm. "Hey, sit down, it's okay." He stated, one hand digging into his pocket just in case he needed to get some out if Sanji went violent. "You don't have to talk, Sanji."

"It's not my fault. It's not my fault" Sanji repeated it like a mantra as he sat down, holding his head and refusing to close his eyes. He would have to be sedated if he reacted too badly and he didn't want that; he wanted to talk to Luffy, he wanted to tell him all the good things that Akira had told him. But the meds were wearing off, he was a week short and his mind needed more than one dose.

"He wont forgive you!" he closed his eyes as the voice screamed in his mind, biting away the ache that was slowly growing in his head and ears.

Suddenly a hand came down on his shoulder and he was wrenched from his suffering by the sudden sight of Luffy kneeling before him.

Taking in the stunned silence, Zoro pressed some of Sanji's medicine into his hand, knowing that the blond would take it as soon as possible. He too was worried by the way Luffy had slumped to the floor, but the look in the raven haired boy's face was a foreign one.

Luffy just knelt there, staring up at Sanji with a look of shock and worry on his face. This was the man that his brother had been in love with, wasn't he? But ... this was patient 109, the patient who was infamous for maiming anyone that went into his cell? Had he been different when Ace was with him? So many questions were bouncing around in Luffy's head, but he didn't know how to begin to ask them.

Sanji just stared at the young man, stunned for a brief moment before he felt the pills in his palm and put them in his mouth to be dry swallowed. His eyes never left Luffy, not once, even when Shanks urged Zoro to go with him when he left the office-much to Zoro's displeasure.

The drugs didn't take long to take over where the previous dose had left off and Sanji was glad for it, the mouth stopped speaking; it was there but it was mute for now.

"They'll be fine, Zoro." Shanks reassured Zoro as they left the room, waiting just outside the office door. "Luffy's got a big heart, it takes a lot to get him angry with anyone. He's much different from his parents like that." The redhead rubbed his forehead with his hand.

Zoro nodded in understanding, but he still listened intently for any signs of chaos in the office.

In the room, Luffy looked to the ground, drew a breath, and then looked up at Sanji. "Ace ... he never said how you two met ... but he was always smiling when he talked about you." He started, hoping that he was taking the right approach.

The words registered to Sanji and after a long silence the blonde spoke.

"He dumped fish on me..." Luffy gave a questioning look and the blonde giggled lightly, "he dropped the crate of fish he was carrying and it dumped on me, he apologized like the dickens but all I had running through my head was 'I have to take him to dinner' Things went from there, we dated for a year before we moved in together..."

Luffy smiled; leave it to Ace to drop something like that on a person. "He was always like that; he spilled pizza sauce on me once when we were little." He stated, trying to keep his voice light. Propping his chin on his kness, the black haired youth kept his eyes on Sanji's face.

Sanji laughed a little and tried to picture Akira younger than when he'd met him, he was sure what he was picturing wasn't accurate but it was cute.

"He was so excited that you were going to come visit...", he said softly, "he always made an ordeal of going to visit you, drove me crazy with laundry and cooking. I always knew when he was going because he would start preparing a week ahead of time." He watched Luffy for a moment, nothing that he probably didn't need to know, but Akira had been a wonderful lover...he'd been a wonderful man as well.

Luffy stared for a long moment, his smile still on his face. "Yeah ... he was always so happy when he was with you too." He admitted, smiling. "He wouldn't talk about you when Mom and Dad were around, just to keep them from getting on his case, but when they were gone he was always talking about you ..."

He had been a little jealous at first; Ace had someone other than his little brother to shower affection upon, and it had taken Luffy a while to get used to it. But now, staring at Sanji, Luffy found that the jealousy was slowly fading away. "You miss him, don't you?"

Sanji closed his eyes, feeling himself crack and threaten to shatter; he fought to keep his emotion out of his voice as he looked down at Luffy who was sitting before him on the floor.

"More than anything...", he said softly, "I miss him at night when I am all alone, I miss him on his birthday and mine, on our anniversary, I miss him every day. I think about him all the time, whether I am awake or asleep... And I think I am falling in love with someone else...but-" tears gathered and the blonde slumped in his chair, "but I don't want to forget..."

Luffy gave Sanji a knowing look, eyes distant. "I don't think falling in love again would make you forget ..." He mumbled, not certain of what else to say to the blond patient.

The blonde didn't respond, but the words stuck inside him. Loving someone else when the one you promised to love forever was dead didn't mean that you didn't love them anymore. Even if he moved on he would still have the life he'd built with Ace in his memories, wouldn't he? Reaching for the younger male, Sanji nearly fell as he wrapped him in a hug that he was sure he didn't want.

Shanks had been on the phone almost the entire time since he and Zoro had left Sanji and Luffy alone. Now, as he hung up the phone he turned to the younger man with a light grin.

"You can pick up your ID card and counseling log in the main office when we're done here."

Zoro grinned in relief, and stood up to go down to the main office when Zeff entered the room, looking angrier than Zoro had ever seen him. It only took one glare from the old doctor for him to realize that he'd somehow gotten word that Zoro was present. "I thought I told you you were fired ..." Zeff growled, only to be stopped as Shanks coughed into his fist.

"I heard this, but I overruled you." Nodding towards the room where Sanji and Luffy were, the redhead gave Zeff an unflincing look. "Zoro went and brought Sanji back here, and got him calmed down before hand. I don't see any reason why you saw any reason to let him go ... especially considering how many injuries Sanji has given you."

Zeff pointed as though he were a child, a very old looking child.

"I _fired _him for inappropriate conduct!" he snapped; Shanks gave the old doctor a curious look before glancing at Zoro as though wondering.

"Do you have this documented?" he asked Zeff, taking his gaze away from the intern and leveling the old man with a stare. Zeff sputtered, anyone in the hospital would know that if the tape hadn't been separated fromt the rest, it would have been recorded over by now. "Obviously not" Shanks said after a moment, then turned back to Zoro, "You may return to your duties as soon as you like, your 6 month training period isn't finished and you still have a report to present just like the rest of the interns at the end of the training period."

Zoro had to duck his head in a nod to hide the very giddy smile on his face. 'Take that, geezer.' He thought to himself, leaving the room and walking down the hallway.

Shanks watched him go for a long moment before turning to Zeff and pressing the call button on the wall.

"If you would be so kind as to escort Sanji back to his cell?" he didn't give the old man time to refuse before he opened the door and smiled at the sight of the patient still talking to Luffy briefly. "Alright you two, I am sorry to say that that is all the time I can allow you to have together. Sanji, Zeff will escort you back to your room." The red haired man didn't miss the cold look that the blonde gave the head doctor as he stood and paced towards him. It was a look that Zeff fully reciprocated.

Sanji didn't want to leave just yet, but when the door to the office opened and Shanks stood there with the good doctor, he knew that it was time to go. Zoro wasn't there and he gave Zeff a cold look before begrudgingly standing and pacing towards him. Two nurses that had been called up at some point held out a straight jacket and Sanji was very still as they put it on him.

_If Zoro isn't here..._

Once they'd buckled it and Shanks had closed the door behind them, he threw himself into one of the nurses, ramming her into the wall and knocking her unconscious. It only took one kick each to knock the other nurse and Zeff away and then he was free from them.

_If Zoro isn't here, then I wont be either..._

He ran.

The alarms were going off as Zoro left the main office, making him sigh in exapseration. "Sanji ..." He muttered to himself, shaking his head. "Dammit, can't I take my eyes off of him for one moment ..." with that, he took off, looking for the blond.

Sanji dodged his way around nurses, grinning evily as he opened every door he could on his way past. This would give the nurses something to do while he tried to get out.

Zoro didn't want to know why Sanji was going on a rampage, because he was pretty certain that he could guess why. "I should've waited until Sanji was in his cell before leaving ..." He muttered, turning the corner and seeing the blond running at him.

Not wanting Sanji to get away, Zoro tackled him. "Hey, I'm still here, you idiot! I just left to pick up my ID!"

Sanji squirmed in the person's grasp before he realized who it was, seeing Zoro's upset face, he stopped moving. So he wasn't leaving? He was still here?

Seeing the look Sanji was giving him, Zoro sighed in exasperation. "Come on, let me get you back to your cell ..." He steered Sanji towards the cell, glad to be back.


	6. It Could Happen

_(2 Moths later ...)_  
Zoro stood just outside of Sanji's cell, trying to collect his breath and thoughts. It was the end of the six month evaluation period, and while he hadn't had anymore negative run-ins with Zeff (which was probably Shank's doing, now that he thought about it), he wasn't so certain he'd be able to prove Sanji was ready to be released ...

Deciding that dithering wasn't going to do him any good, Zoro sighed and entered Sanji's cell.

Sanji was laying on the floor of his cell, staring blandly at the ceiling above him when the door opened and Zoro walked in with two nurses.

"You're late", he mumbled lightly, Zoro laughed, leave it to an insane man to worry about the time at which his doctor arrived.

Zoro laughed at that, closing the door behind him and the nurses as he pulled Sanji's pills out of his pocket. "There was a bad accident on my way in here, sorry." He stated, bending down at the waist to grin down into Sanji's face. "It won't happen again, I promise. Come on and take your meds."

Sanji didn't move but instead just opened his mouth and waited for the intern to drop the medication in for him to swallow. The nurses-despite the patient's lately docile behavior-took a step back from the man, obviously deciding that if he got maimed they wouldn't want to get in the way.

Zoro ignored the nurses, knowing by this point that Sanji would only come after him in fun, not to hurt. Kneeling, he pulled the pills out and held a hand over Sanji's mouth, the pills ready to drop. "Don't choke on me, you hear?" He commented, dropping the pills into the blonde's mouth.

The blonde mumbled something about not making any promises before dry swallowing the pills and moving to get up. As he moved and Zoro stepped so he could move, the nurses stepped back yet again and Sanji had the nagging desire to lunge at them just to see them flinch.

"So, do you think that you're ready for this, Sanji?" Zoro asked after a moment, trying to hide his nervousness. If this went wrong ... then they would really, really be in some deep shit. All he could do was pray that nothing happened ...

He hoped Karma would be nice for once.

Sanji glanced at the green haired man but said nothing before standing and following after the other, letting the intern put the handcuffs on and take him by the arm as the nurses opened the door. The world was strangely silent as patient 109 was led from his cell, patients and staff members alike watched as he was led, the only sound being that of their footsteps and some of the tantrums of one or two of the more insane patients.

"They're not going to let you out, you're crazy…" the mouth whispered tauntingly, he tried to ignore it.

So far, so good. Zoro reached over and squeezed Sanji's shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry, we can do this." He stated, black eyes locked onto his patient's face.

"I'm not worried" Sanji said softly as he was lead down the hall and out of the ward. It was a lie, he knew it was a lie; he was more worried now than he could really remember. If things didn't go well, if he let Zoro down, he would be here forever and he would lose Zoro.

The intern didn't know that he knew about the deal, he'd heard him telling Nami at one point over the last few weeks, it had been when Luffy had come to visit and they'd been left alone. They were supposed to have been talking but they instead elected to eavesdrop on the intern. Since he'd heard about the deal he'd not brought it up, he'd been as good as he could possibly be when he wasn't psychotic in hopes of keeping the young man he'd grown so fond of.

The hospital seemed strangely silent despite the occasional sound coming from one of the cells. Nurses and doctors alike stopped what they were doing to watch him go by; they all knew him, whether they'd treated him or not. They knew his violent nature, his love of hurting others and he was sure that they'd heard of his liking of a new intern.

"Don't mind them" he heard Zoro say and he gave the barest of smiles, he would do his best. He had to.

The room was silent, warm and stuffy with five people sitting on the other side of a long table with one chair for Sanji to be seated in. Shanks was in the middle, as the curator of the hospital and lead board member it was to be expected, to his left was Chopper, the medical director and to his right was Smoker [whether or not this was his real name was debatable]. On Chopper's other side was Vivi, a young heiress who's father had funded the hospital for years which had led to her pursuit of a spot on the board; and on Smoker's other side was Nojiko, another board member and incidentally Nami's elder sister.

As they entered the room, the mouth grinned in an almost evil way and spoke to Sanji who was trying desperately to ignore it.

"You're kidding yourself, you're not sane, you're never going to convince all these people…"

Zoro drew a deep breath as Sanji sat down, praying to all high heaven that everything worked out as he hoped. If Sanji could prove that he could handle himself as long as he took his medication regularly, he could get out of this place. He wouldn't be living on his own, that was NOT what Zoro wanted, but he would get out of this nuthouse. And that was, at the very least, a good start.

Taking a deep breath, Sanji's gaze circled around the room until he found the chair that he was to sit in. It was set up directly across from Shanks; a plain wooden chair, no cushion-not that he expected one-it wasn't meant to be comfortable.

The entire room was silent as the lunatic paced through the room, his bare footsteps making a soft smacking noise as he walked. As they all watched him closely, the blonde sat down, crossing his legs and then his hands in his lap; a cool grin overtook his face.

"No shackles? I have to say I am disappointed..."

Shanks cracked a grin at the joke.

"Yes, well, we decided to put a little faith in you" Sanji grinned wider, noting the unspoken 'don't prove us wrong' that followed the sentence.

Zoro felt a small grin come across his face, and sat down next to Sanji, quietly watching the other doctors as they watched the blond. So far, so good ... now just to hope that the hallucinations didn't come back and drive the poor man into hiding. It would be hard to convince Smoker in particular, who even now regarded Sanji with a wary eye.

Clearing his throat, Chopper looked over at Sanji. "Let's not waste any time here, shall we?" He said, voice strangely polite.

Sanji listened silently as Chopper rattled off his report, stating that there was a dramatic decrease of admission of patient 109 in the hospital wing as well as an equally dramatic decrease of others being admitted at the fault of 109. He also stated that mild injury reports dealing with patient 109 had gone down as well. He ended his report with a smile.

"I have to say I am honestly impressed with the increase that I personally have seen in patient 109's behavior towards others." The board clapped at the report and then came the questions; interrogative demands of answers, even if they didn't seem like it. They asked questions like what would he do if someone stole his seat on a bus, and if he was seeing anything strange lately.

"What would you do if someone attacked you for your money on the street?" asked Smoker, giving him a coldly scrutinizing look. Sanji watched him for a long moment, his eyes turning slightly cold though his voice stayed cool and calm.

"If you are expecting me to say that I would comply, I wouldn't; I can't say that I would honestly try to kill the person, but I would defend myself as needed." He closed his eyes and finished lightly, "If you are going to condemn me for that, then so be it…"

The mouth grinned widely and opened it's mouth to speak and Sanji kept his eyes closed, bracing himself for the comment. He couldn't listen to it, he just couldn't, if he let it get to him then he would let Zoro down. All eyes watched his exchange with Smoker when he opened his eyes, the stares were long and silent until finally Smoker raised his hand and relented, allowing someone else to speak, evidently satisfied with the answer.

Zoro felt the knots in his chest relax one by one as the doctors continued with their discussion with Sanji. There hadn't been any negative reactions yet, no signs of his hallucinations coming back to drive the poor young man into hysterics. Hopefully they would wait until Sanji had been cleared and they were back in his cell ...

When Vivi's turn came, the young heiress looked at Sanji, her eyes soft. "Sanji, can you tell us where you're planning on living when you leave here?"

Zoro paused. Sanji had never said where he wanted to live once he got out of here. He didn't even have a clue as to where the blond would want to live, and that made him nervous.

Sanji stopped at the question, a slightly surprised look coming over his face as he looked at the woman before him. He honestly hadn't thought of it as something that he would actually have to decide at some point and had only brought up day fantasies on the subject when he was alone either waiting for Zoro or waiting to sleep.

For a long few moments he looked as a small child who had been asked a particularly advanced question in math, he frowned slightly, staring at his hands as though a cheat sheet were concealed there. There wasn't of course, but still he looked.

If he were honest, he wanted to live with Zoro.

"_They wont let you do that~_" the mouth purred in triumph over the strong willed blonde's mind. Of course he already knew that, that's why he hadn't said it, he thought in retort to the mouth; his head was starting to hurt and knowing that he didn't have long if the stress continued, he blurted out.

"With Zoro..."

Zoro blinked, shocked and a bit embarrassed. "With ... with me?" He asked the blond, who nodded. Not knowing how to respond, he turned to watch the board as they began discussing it themselves. it seemed like Sanji's statement had taken them all by surprise as well, but it seemed like they were seriously discussing how to handle that announcement.

Vivi seemed to recover first, because she gave Sanji a curious look. "Why do you want to stay with Zoro, Sanji?"

Sanji watched the intern silently the entire time that the board wasn't talking to him, he was scanning through the green haired man's face to see if he could spot disgust, mistrust, anything that might have told him that Zoro disliked the idea. He found none.

"Because…" Vivi's question mulled over in his head after she finally spoke to him, "because I don't feel so crazy around him…" he said lightly, "I can see myself being a decent human being when he's around…" It was true, he was lonely when Zoro was away, "besides, I figure it would kill two birds with one stone, as he is my doctor, treatment would be much more immediate if he had to spend a significant amount of time with me and view my behavior on a day to day basis." He said it logically and it seemed to stick with the five across that varnished table from him.

After he answered, he peeked up at Zoro through the curtain of his hair.

Zoro wondered if he resembled a Christmas display at this point, his face felt so red. His mouth was opening and closing without saying anything, but he attempted to give Sanji a shaky smile, nodding. He did have to admit, the blond brought up some very logical points as to why they should live together, but would they buy it?

Thinking about that made Zoro very glad that Zeff was not at the board meeting; ever since the incident not too long ago, the old doctor had nothing but glares for Zoro, while the rest of the staff seemed at least mildly impressed with his progress in regards to Sanji.

Now, watching them, all he could do was hope and pray that this didn't screw things up.

After a moment of awkward discussion, Shanks turned to the two under speculation and smiled warmly.

"Thank you the both of you, if you would like you may wait in the hall while we discuss our decision." For some reason that sentence made Sanji nervous and looked up to watch Zoro nod before he stood and let himself be led from the room.

For the first ten minutes that they were in the hall, Sanji was silent; not a sound echoed through the room from him that could even challenge the buzzing of the florescent lights that flickered as they threatened to die. It was as though they were signaling that his freedom was fluttering out the window.

"Sorry…" he said finally, his voice soft, but still somehow sounding jarringly loud against the silence of the hall.

Zoro jumped a bit, startled by the noise; he'd been lost in his own thoughts, and hadn't really noticed the dead silence until Sanji had spoken up. "I ... it's alright. you don't have anything to apologize for, Sanji." He nodded, resisting the urge to light up a cigarette and smoke it then and there. "You just answered the questions they asked you, they can't fault you for doing that."

Dark eyes watched Zoro for a moment, then the loon leaned back against the cool brick wall that was cheaply painted white. What he wouldn't have given for a smoke, if only to calm himself so that he didn't stress himself out to the point of breaking down. Bringing his legs up, Sanji rested his heels on the edge of the seat he was sitting in, spreading his knees wide and resting an arm on each one. He looked reminiscent of some street punk that was waiting on their little sister at a school, as though he really didn't want to be there but had to be.

The arms of the seat limited how far his legs stuck out and he had to shift a little so that his head was comfortable against the brick instead of craning backwards. In the end he was sitting there, eyes closed and leaning, he would be staring straight at Zoro if he opened his eyes and looked down ever so slightly.

"You'd be surprised…" he said lightly, then the hall fell silent for another moment or two. Right when Zoro was leaning back, thinking that the conversation had ended, Saji spoke again, not opening his eyes. "What ran through your mind when I said it…?" He wanted to know, needed to know what Zoro was thinking, it was driving him nuts; almost as much as waiting for this damn verdict. It made him want a smoke even more.

God fucking damn, hurry up in there! He was close to scratching and shaking just for the want of the information.

Zoro reached over and gripped Sanji's hand, wanting to comfort the blond in any way he could. "I ... Had a lot going through my mind, honestly. Surprise, mainly." He didn't know how to explain it all, really. "Honestly, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was." Blushing a bit, he added. "And ... honestly?" He looked away, chewing on his tongue for a moment. "I ... was happy."

His face was red again. he knew it, but he had to say it. He had been ... well, happy wasn't a strong enough word. Past the surprise and embarrassment, he'd been happy enough to break out into a shit-eating grin if it hadn't been so completely unprofessional (and he hadn't been so completely poleaxed.)

Sanji smiled and squeezed the other man's hand gently, he couldn't have told him just how relieved that he was to hear that, if he hadn't been so scared about the verdict he could have cried. Instead he half stood and leaned over the other male, dipping his head down enough to just barely touch his lips with his.

"Good…" he purred, grinning before he stood fully, hearing the door on the other side of the hall open. Nojiko peeked out, she was the only one who hadn't asked any questions through out the entire interview. She smiled at them lightly, almost looking like Nami did when she smiled.

"You two can come back in now…" Her eyes latched on them for a brief moment and her smile vanished only for a second then she grinned again and disappeared back into the room, not saying another word. At first Sanji wondered what the hell was with her reaction, but he knew what it was the moment it changed.

Zoro let go of his hand to stand and lead him back into the room. Not once since Zoro had taken it, had Sanji released his hand, not even when Nojiko had been there.

"_Now you've done it_" the mouth laughed almost evilly, "_they definitely know something is wrong with you, you're not getting out of here~ Not ever!"_

Sanji's entire world went silent, the mouth was right, he'd done something careless and now it was going to cost him. Zoro was going to be gone and he was going to be here, left in the care of the good doctor. Miserable and mental.

No, no no no, that couldn't happen, not when he'd tried so hard! His hand flew to his head as the pain ached there, the buzzing of the lights filling his ears. He was going to break, if Zoro wasn't there, then he didn't want to be either. If Zoro could never come back, then Sanji didn't want to linger. He could take too many pills, hoard them until he had enough to convulse and seize; there would be nothing that they could do about it.

The mouth cackled and Sanji bent, wanting desperately to smash his head into something until all of a sudden something grabbed onto his shoulders and his head snapped up to see Zoro. The buzzing stopped the instant he touched him.

The kiss had made his brain shut down. All it focused on was his mouth, Sanji's mouth, the fact that they were touching ... the fact that they were kissing ... His brain only kicked into gear when he saw Sanji buckle. Worried, half knowing what was going on, he reached out and grabbed the blond's shoulders.

When he looked up, Zoro offered him a small smile. "Hey, we've still got a chance. Don't give in yet, got it?" He hoped it was reassuring, in some small, helpful way. They were nearly at the end, nearly there, he wasn't going to quit just yet. "Just hold out a bit longer; you can do this."

He put as much confidence into his words as he could. He didn't want Sanji breaking down.

The words struck something inside Sanji, no one but Zoro ever said things like that when he was breaking down, maybe that was why Zoro had gotten to him. He was different, he wasn't like the others that tried to lock him up and drug him into a coma, Zoro wanted to understand him. He could reach into Sanji's madness even though he knew that he might have gotten hurt and drag him back out, telling him that it was a poor man's escape and that he could do better.

And that…that was why Sanji loved him….

The revelation brought a grin to the loon's face and maybe it was his meds kicking in but he stood up tall, enjoying the silence that the meds brought to him.

"Let's get this over with…" he said callously before stepping past the intern and heading into the room.

The blonde man stood patiently at the bus stop, the cold winter air chilling his breath that escaped where the thick wool scarf didn't cover. The breath that hit the scarf turned into a warm wetness that almost suffocated him, yet he stood there patiently, not removing it. Today was a special day, even the cold wouldn't ruin it. His long black coat stood out starkly against the dim white and grey surroundings that winter brought with it and it made sure that the bus would stop. They didn't like to when it was cold, they liked to skip stops if there was no one there; sure they would slow, but if no one came they would keep driving.

When the bus finally did come, he stepped onto it and smiled at the driver before taking a seat by the window. As the bus started moving again, he thought about that day six months ago; the day that had changed his life. The words were still ringing in his head.

"We have looked over your progress, Sanji, we've decided you're sane enough to live outside of the institution", he'd nearly leapt for joy when Vivi had said that, Shanks had butted in quick enough to stop him though.

"You'll have to live in a home for the mentally unstable, but you'll be free to come and go as you please so long as the staff know where you're going and have a way of contacting you…" He could handle that.

Glancing down at the cellphone that had been allotted him, he flicked it open and found the text with the directions to where he was going. Third stop on fifty third street.

Sitting at his kitchen table, Zoro looked out the window, impatiently watching the buses. Even though he had poured himself a mug of coffee a few hours ago, it was only partially drunk and cold now. He still held it in his hand out of habit, too preoccupied to pay much attention to it. Six month had passed by in a hazy blur, and now he could never remember being more anxious and excited than he was at that moment.

Looking out the window, he blinked as a bus pulled to a stop nearby. He didn't even wait to see who was getting off before hurrying down to the ground floor, grinning. He was wearing an old white shirt and black pants with fuzzy slippers, but today was a day where he didn't have to get dressed up.

To his relief, a familiar head of blond hair walked inside, making him smile. "About time you got here. I was worried you got on the wrong bus."

"I did" Sanji said with a smile, unwrapping his scarf as he entered the building, "I had to backtrack three stops before I managed to get on the correct one…" Folding the scarf in his hands, he pulled off his gloves and wrapped them up inside it, "Sorry to keep you waiting…"

Zoro chuckled, shaking his head. "It's no problem." He smiled again, reaching out and taking a chilled hand in his. "C'mon, we can head upstairs now if you want. I can make a fresh pot of coffee to boot."

He ... liked this ... this closeness, this open friendliness that they couldn't get at the institute ...

Zoro liked this a lot.

Sanji nodded and followed the young man up the stairs, it was something of a wonder, to think that they'd gotten so far in only a year. It was one year ago today that he'd seen those beautiful eyes peer in on him and bring introduce this wonderful ray of sunshine into his dark, silent world. Over the course of the last six months since the evaluation, Zoro had lit every dark corner up, showed him that there was nothing to be afraid of. All in just one year.

The blonde was sure that the green haired male didn't know what it truly meant to the loon that he'd been so determined. After some of the horror stories that the man had told him, he was amazed that he hadn't gone running for the hills.

Smiling to himself, Sanji stopped just outside of Zoro's door; that was Zoro for you, always pressing forward in life. He pushed so hard that the loon couldn't help but follow, he wouldn't let him stop. And who knew, maybe in six months they could live together…

"What're you grinning about?" Zoro asked with a suspicious look; Sanji only grinned wider and stepped into the house.

"Oh nothing…" he said lightly, putting his gloves on the table beside the door, it was just below the hook that the green haired male hung his keys on.

_Who knows…_ He thought to himself lightly, _it could happen…_


End file.
